Michael P. Yi (93), a political science doctor from George Washington University who visited Korea, was interviewed by on the 17th of last month. A declassified US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) report dated May 22, 1980, which Dr. Yi was involved in writing (bottom center), states that "Associates of Kim Dae Jung" were mixed in with the civilian groups negotiating with the Martial Law Commander, and that an "insurrection" in Jeolla Province posed a serious threat to the Martial Law Command. The CIA also reported that while the military was negotiating a ceasefire, force might need to be used to quell the "rebellion." Coincidentally, on the same day, North Korea's Rodong Sinmun on May 22, 1980, specifically reported on the confrontation between the Gwangju protesters and the Martial Law forces, and the status of arms depot raids and captured equipment. At the time, due to press censorship, Korean media were unable to report these facts properly. (Top - bottom right) The photo on the left shows protesters from the May 18 Archives.  Testimony from Former CIA Agent Michael Yi 

"Secured 'Consistent Testimony' During Interrogation of North Korean Defectors at the US Embassy in Korea" 

"Hwang Jang-yop's List Was Buried in the Dirt by Kim Young-sam" 

Kim Kyung-jae: "I Heard Kim Young-sam Ignored It, but I Couldn't Confirm"

Kim Jung-rin, Head of North Korean Anti-South Operations, Directed Amidst Park Chung-hee's Assassination

January Directives Issued to Infiltrated Spies... 2-3 Person Operative Teams Infiltrated Sequentially 

Some Soldiers Were Recruited... Most Were Highly Trained Civilians 

"North Korea Plotted Invasion on May 27th... Abandoned After Jeon남도청 Was Recaptured" 

Spies Who Came Down During the Pusan-Masan Incident Remained and Immediately Joined Gwangju 

While Gwangju Citizens Cannot Be Labeled as Rioters, Anti-National Forces Must Be Identified 

There is testimony from a former Korean-American CIA agent revealing that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) knew that then-President Kim Young-sam ignored a list of North Korean operatives submitted by former North Korean Workers' Party Secretary Hwang Jang-yop, who had come to Gwangju during the May 18th incident in 1980. 

Michael Yi (93), a political science doctor at George Washington University, who worked as a Korean-American intelligence agent for 40 years, approaching the truth of major anti-communist incidents more closely than anyone else and directly investigating the turbulent modern history of Korea, revealed this in an interview with on the 17th, stating, "This is something I have never told anyone before."

(※ Dr. Yi uses 'Michael Yi', so it is translated as 마이클 이. He is the same person as previously introduced as 'Michael Lee' according to Korean practice of translating 'Lee' as '리'.)

Dr. Yi stated that while working as a political officer and ROK-US Security Cooperation Coordinator for North Korea at the US Embassy in Seoul for 10 years from 1985 to 1995, he interrogated many North Korean defectors and obtained consistent information about the number of North Korean operatives, requesting "off the record" for specific details about the scale of the North Korean operations. 

He then added, "There is a fact that has recently come to light," stating, "We in the CIA know that Hwang Jang-yop provided a list of [number redacted] people to Kim Young-sam, which Kim Young-sam then buried in the dirt without announcing it to the public." 

When asked about the circumstances and sources of how he recently learned about the details related to Secretary Hwang Jang-yop, Dr. Yi replied, "I cannot reveal it." When asked if it could be understood that he obtained the information from intelligence sources, he replied, "Yes." As of the 26th, no new declassified documents have been released by the US State Department or the CIA. (As of the deadline for Weekly Issue No. 7. The same applies to the online publication date of May 5th. Editor's Note)

At this point, Dr. Yi mentioned that Kim Kyung-jae, former president of the Korea Freedom Federation, who visited Pyongyang as a special envoy to North Korea during the Kim Dae-jung administration in 1999, witnessed fake graves (가묘) of [number redacted] people. 

Kim Kyung-jae testified to Seo Ok-sik, then Vice Chairman and Editorial Committee Member of the Korea Journalists Association, who was also a former editor-in-chief of Yonhap News, that when he visited North Korea as Kim Dae-jung's special envoy in 1999, he saw "fake graves of patriotic martyrs of the People's Army who died in Gwangju" at the Patriotic Martyrs' Cemetery in Sinmi-ri, Pyongyang. This was first reported through 'KNews' in May 2023. 

When the reporter requested a cross-check with Dr. Michael Yi's stated numbers, there was a discrepancy in the scale. Kim Kyung-jae stated, "The fake graves I saw (of North Korean soldiers infiltrated into the South) were about 9 to 11." 

Kim Kyung-jae stated, "I have heard that Kim Young-sam ignored Hwang Jang-yop's list, but I have not confirmed it myself," but hinted that the claim was obtained a long time ago, indicating the time he heard the story was "around the time" Hwang Jang-yop defected. 

A US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) report dated May 22, 1980 (top) states that "Associates of Kim Dae Jung" were mixed in with the civilian groups negotiating with the Martial Law Commander. It also reported that an "insurrection" in Jeolla Province posed a serious threat to the Martial Law Command (bottom left), and that although the military was negotiating a ceasefire, force might need to be used to quell the "rebellion" (bottom right). CIA report capture

Previously, in an interview with this reporter for in October 2023, Dr. Michael Yi testified that the May 18, 1980 incident was an act of "anti-South operations" by North Korea, orchestrated by Kim Jung-rin, head of North Korean Workers' Party anti-South operations, who issued directives in January of the following year, taking advantage of President Park Chung-hee's assassination in 1979. Civilian operative teams, divided into groups of two or three, infiltrated Gwangju by land and sea and then joined forces with entrenched spies with the goal of overthrowing the Republic of Korea. 

Dr. Yi, who served as a Korea desk officer for US intelligence agencies, including the CIA, for 40 years, was deeply involved in investigating the origins and backgrounds of tragic events in modern Korean history orchestrated by North Korea, such as the KAL bombing, the Kim Shin-jo infiltration incident of January 21st, and the Rangoon bombing. He was a key "North Korea expert" in the US intelligence community who directly investigated the May 18th incident and filed the first report to Washington. 

"Received Intelligence on Concrete North Korean Anti-South Operations... The US Already Anticipated Unrest" 

Dr. Michael Yi specifically pinpointed the timing, stating, "Kim Jung-rin issued directives to the embedded spies in Korea in January (January) of 1980." This is the first time the timing of North Korea's directive has been disclosed. At the time, Kim Jung-rin was the head of anti-South operations for the Workers' Party of Korea and formulated operational plans in close proximity to Chairman Kim Il-sung. 

When asked to clarify the nature of the embedded spies, he explained, "They were spies who had already infiltrated and were present, and North Korea refers to entrenched and embedded spies collectively as 'revolutionary forces.'" He added, "After the first directive was issued, they were spies who had been embedded (in the South) after infiltrating in groups of two or three for several months." 

In fact, North Korean infiltration activities intensified leading up to May 18th. On March 25, 1980, an armed North Korean spy ship that infiltrated off the coast of Pohang was attacked by the navy and sank, killing eight armed spies. Two days earlier, on March 23rd, there was an infiltration into the lower reaches of the Han River, and on March 27th, armed communist infiltrators frequently appeared in Gangwon Province. 

US intelligence agencies had detected unusual North Korean movements as early as the summer of 1979. The US, which had been closely monitoring North Korea's activities, identified that North Korea had begun special forces training in preparation for an invasion around this time. At that point, the authorities still viewed it as North Korea's chronic invasion plan, but as intelligence on Kim Jung-rin's activities accumulated, they considered it unusual and maintained close surveillance. 

Dr. Michael Yi confirmed, "We were able to confirm through various sources that North Korea was concretizing its anti-South operations. We obtained intelligence that the 17th Airborne Brigade and special forces were training, and that Kim Jung-rin had issued directives, and I immediately reported this to Washington." Based on his report, the US government had already anticipated that unrest orchestrated and directed by North Korea would occur in South Korea in 1980. He commented, "I understand that the South Korean government also shared this information." 

According to a report in Japan's Tongil Ilbo, North Korea planned to launch a large-scale guerrilla operation in South Korea by infiltrating a large number of armed spies in the spring of this year, taking advantage of South Korea's political instability, with plans to occupy provincial broadcast stations and engage in full-scale anti-South guerrilla activities. The armed communist infiltration incident in the Han River on the 23rd and the armed spy ship incident discovered off the coast of Pohang on the 25th were part of this spy operation. [Reported in the Dong-A Ilbo on March 28, 1980]  

According to South Korean government documents, on May 10, 1980, Kim Young-sun, Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA), reported to then-Chun Doo-hwan, Commander of the Security Force and Acting Director of the KCIA, the high probability of a North Korean invasion in mid-May. Two days later, the South Korean government convened an emergency cabinet meeting, and the responsible director from the KCIA attended to report on the analysis of the North Korean invasion theory. Subsequently, an order to enter an emergency martial law system was issued to the military and police. The government used these North Korean signs as grounds for proclaiming martial law. 

Dr. Michael Yi provided a more detailed explanation of how the forces that stirred up and fought with citizens and the martial law troops, mixed among the Gwangju citizens, were organized. This was during the elaboration on "revolutionary forces." He stated, "(In addition to infiltrated spies,) spies who had been sent by North Korea during the Pusan-Masan incident and remained in the South without returning joined forces in Gwangju." He added, "We confirmed that North Korea was involved in the Sabuk incident in April 1980, and that remaining personnel joined the May 18th incident a month later." 

Dr. Michael Yi emphasized, "Declassified diplomatic cables from the US State Department do not mention the involvement of North Korean special forces." He explained, "This is because when I reported, I did not state that North Korean special forces were involved; I described them as anti-South operative commandos." 

According to declassified documents from the State Department, the May 18th incident involved "Kim Daejung followers" and "North Korean Agents." He elaborated, "'Military' is not involved. 'Agent' means spy." 

He further stressed, "While soldiers (North Korean People's Army) were recruited to form the anti-South operative teams, the organization itself was structured as a civilian organization, and those carefully selected possessed superior operational capabilities compared to special forces soldiers and had endured high-level training." 

Dr. Michael Yi expressed astonishment at those who interpret diplomatic documents in a self-serving manner when claiming the May 18th incident was a democratization movement. He stated sternly, "It is a basic failure of intelligence analysis to conclude that North Korea was not involved simply by looking at a sentence stating that North Korea waited without invading during the May 18th period." 

He asserted, "The most accurate account is mine. I am the original author and the one who reported on this document." He emphasized, "North Korea planned to infiltrate civilian operative teams to join entrenched spies after first establishing a plan for special forces to invade the South, and they acted on it. The State Department created diplomatic cables based on the CIA report documenting this fact and reported it to Washington." 

According to declassified documents from the US State Department, William Gleysteen, the US Ambassador to Korea, reported to Washington that "impure elements' and communist instigators lay behind the whole affair" (referring to the capture of Lee Chang-ryong, etc.). Furthermore, the May 18th incident involved "Kim Daejung followers" and "North Korean Agents." Son Sung-mo, an infiltrator arrested for spying around the same time as Lee Chang-ryong, was dispatched not as a member of the North Korean military but as a civilian operative. Son Sung-mo himself revealed his infiltration circumstances during his first public trial in April 1988, stating, "I came forward to realize Chairman Kim Il-sung's line of national reunification." Kim Il-sung issued numerous directives and orders for the anti-South operations after the assassination of President Park. Son Sung-mo, who was later imprisoned as a non-reconverted long-term prisoner, was returned to North Korea by Kim Dae-jung in September 2000 and was treated as a hero there.

"The Raid on Gwangju Prison, Where 170 Leftist Criminals Were Incarcerated, Was the Work of North Korean Civilian Operatives" 

Regarding the raids on armories and prisons led by the operative teams, Dr. Michael Yi stated, "The fact that 44 reserve armories in 17 cities and counties in Jeolla Province were captured within four hours is not something that can be simply dismissed as accidental, as claimed by the civilian forces." He asserted, "This was the work of revolutionary forces that had undergone thorough training, which no military in the world could have accomplished, and the collaboration of support forces that had conducted prior reconnaissance and secured all location information." 

He added, "We received accounts of mistakes made by highly trained North Korean operative teams in unfamiliar environments, such as a truck driver carrying rioters stopping the vehicle and asking Gwangju citizens for the location of the provincial government building." 

Dr. Michael Yi insisted, "We acquired 5,408 weapons by breaking into 44 reserve armories and also seized three truckloads of explosives, detonators, and fuses. The five nighttime raids on Gwangju Prison, which housed over 2,700 inmates, including more than 170 leftist criminals, were orchestrated not by civilian forces but by North Korean civilian operatives." 

He continued, "These events can never be called a struggle for democratization." He then urged, "When discussing the Gwangju incident, we must not definitively label all Gwangju citizens as rioters. However, we must manage the anti-national forces, who cannot breathe the same air as us, by separating them from innocent citizens, including the followers of Kim Dae-jung and those who claim to be heroes." 

He repeatedly emphasized that the Gwangju civilian army should not be seen as having shot Gwangju citizens. Dr. Michael Yi stated, "The exact number of people killed by gunfire is available. Among the 116 bodies with gunshot wounds investigated by the South Korean government at the time, 36 were killed by M16 rifles and 80 by carbine rifles." 

Rioters carrying rifles upside down. [Photo unearthed by Dr. Kim Dae-ryeong (left) and May 18 Memorial Collection]At the time, M16 rifles were issued to the suppression forces (martial law troops) as part of the military modernization program. The reserve armories captured by the rioters contained carbine rifles.

Dr. Yi stated that the act of carrying rifles with the muzzle pointing downwards and the stock held upside down can only be explained by North Korean involvement. He said, "In South Korea, even hunters carrying guns to catch pheasants hold them with the muzzle pointing upwards and the buttstock (the wide shoulder rest opposite the muzzle) towards the ground." He attributed the act of carrying the buttstock upside down to the North Korean operative teams mistakenly applying their habits from North Korea. 

When asked if North Korean troops were involved at all, Dr. Michael Yi revealed, "We confirmed that there was a plan for North Korean special forces to invade on May 27th." 

He stated, "North Korea planned a major event to liberate South Korea before the summer of 1980. Their initial strategy was to instigate simultaneous popular uprisings in Seoul, Masan, and Gwangju, led by the revolutionary forces established underground in South Korea, while outwardly presenting it as a spontaneous democratic struggle by citizens." He continued, "If this fire spread nationwide, the People's Liberation Civilian Army would request military support from North Korea, and at that time, I was the first to obtain intelligence while working abroad that North Korea would infiltrate the 17th Airborne Brigade and special forces to accomplish the great cause of national reunification, which failed during the Korean War, and I reported it to Washington." 

Specifically, North Korea had deployed and positioned forces near the armistice line to invade on May 27th. However, because the uprising in the South did not spread and the martial law forces recaptured the provincial government building on the morning of the 27th, North Korea abandoned the plan to deploy special forces. 

He emphasized the need to understand why North Korea involved Chun Doo-hwan, the Commander of the Security Force. Dr. Michael Yi stated, "When the national security of the Republic of Korea was extremely precarious after President Park Chung-hee's assassination, North Korea saw this as a great opportunity and targeted it. However, because Commander Chun Doo-hwan managed the situation well, they are bringing him in and despising him." He added, "The fact that all responsibility for Gwangju is being unfairly placed on Chun Doo-hwan, who has no relation to it, shows that North Korea is a group capable of shooting Gwangju citizens and unfairly blaming the martial law troops." 

Prior to the May 18th incident, our military dispersed one battalion of special forces, disguised as the enemy, along the Honam coast in squad units to inspect coastal defense status, and all of them successfully landed. This demonstrates the laxity of coastal surveillance, with the entire coastline of North and South Jeolla Provinces being permeable. The photo shows Baegbawi Rock in Duryu-myeon, Yeonggwang-gun, where spy ship sightings and infiltrations by communist forces were frequent around the time of the May 18th incident, as reported by military authorities. The photo was taken two years ago during a reporter's site visit.  

By Heo Gyeom, Reporter