Blue House Raid

Blue House raid
Part of Korean Conflict, Cold War
The Blue House, the official residence of the President of South Korea, in August 2010.
Date January 17, 1968 – January 29, 1968 Location Blue House, Seoul, South Korea Result North Korean failure
Belligerents
South Korea  United States	North Korea
Commanders and leaders
Park Chung-hee Charles Bonesteel III	Kim Il-sung
Strength
ROK 25th Infantry Division ROK 26th Infantry Division (Elements) U.S. 2nd Infantry Division (Elements) U.S. 1st Infantry Division (Elements)	KPA Unit 124
Casualties and losses
Total casualties: 26 killed, 66 wounded 4 killed	Total casualties: 29 killed (1 by suicide) 1 captured

The Blue House raid (also known in South Korea as the January 21 Incident) was an unsuccessful attempt by North Korean commandos to assassinate the South Korean president, Park Chung-hee in his residence at the Blue House, on January 21, 1968.

The attack at the Blue House took place in the context of the Korean DMZ Conflict (1966–69), which in turn was influenced by the Vietnam War. Following the South Korean presidential election, 1967 and the South Korean legislative election, 1967, the North Korean leadership concluded that Park Chung Hee's domestic opposition no longer constituted a serious challenge to his rule. On June 28 – July 3, the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea held an extended plenum at which North Korean leader Kim Il-sung called on the cadres "to prepare to give assistance to the struggle of our South Korean brethren." In July 1967, a special squad of the recently established Unit 124 of the Korean People's Army (KPA) was entrusted with the task of assassinating Park. This decision was probably facilitated by the fact that in 1967, the Vietnam War entered a new stage of escalation, under which circumstances the U.S. military forces, preoccupied as they were with Vietnam, could not easily take retaliatory measures against North Korea. In 1965-1968, North Korea-North Vietnam relations were very close, and the DPRK provided substantial military and economic assistance to North Vietnam. North Korean propaganda sought to depict the post-1966 commando raids as a South Korean guerrilla movement akin to the Viet Cong.

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