Yesterday’s terrorist attack in France is an example of the type of attack these ISIS terrorists could attempt in South Korea with the massive crowds that gather for events in places like Seoul.
The French Embassy in Seoul raises the national flag at half-staff on July 15, 2016, to pay tribute to victims of a deadly terrorist attack which killed at least 80 people and wounded dozens of others in the southern French city of Nice the previous day. (Yonhap)
It looks like ISIS wants to spread their war against the West all the way over to South Korea now:
The Islamic State jihadist group has designated U.S. Air Force installations here and South Korean citizens as targets for attacks, Seoul’s state spy agency said Sunday.
In a press release, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) said that the group incited terrorist attacks against them through Telegram, a messaging service, and revealed location data of 77 Air Force installations of the United States and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and of individuals in 21 countries.
The extremist group, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), obtained the location data from its own hacking group, named the “United Cyber Caliphate,” the spy agency explained.
“While disseminating the location data of the installations and information on the individuals, (the group) incited (its sympathizers around the world) to retaliate for the benefit of Muslims,” the NIS said.
Through the messaging program, the IS unveiled the locations of U.S. Air Force units in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, and Gunsan, North Jeolla Province, and of one employee of a South Korean welfare organization. [Yonhap]
You can read the rest at the link, but ISIS is a bunch of fools if they think the location of US military bases in South Korea is secret information.
Considering how authorities have been scouring Brussels for terror suspects ever since the Paris terror attacks you would think it would be hard for these guys to execute such attack. Fortunately this US military family was not killed by this latest terror attack in Europe. I hope they have a speedy recovery from their injuries:
A U.S. airman and his family were among the scores wounded in a series of bombings in Brussels Tuesday claimed by the Islamic State group that killed more than 30 people, prompting a temporary travel restriction to the country for all American forces, U.S. military officials said.
The airman, assigned to Joint Force Command Brunssum, Netherlands, was injured at Brussels’ international airport, the Air Force said in a statement. The Airman, who the Associated Press reported was a lieutenant colonel, “sustained various injuries,” the statement said. [Stars & Stripes]
A ROK Drop favorite Park Sang-hak and other North Korean defectors have had security measures improved for them when the ROK National Intelligence Service (NIS) learned of specific information about North Korean terror and assassination attempts within the ROK. In the case of Park Sang-hak the North Koreans have tried to kill him before:
Following the latest intelligence assessment that North Korea is planning terrorist attacks against the South, security measures to protect high-value targets including influential defectors have been beefed up.
The National Police Agency has reinforced the security detail for former North Korean diplomat Ko Young-hwan, vice president of the Institute for National Security Strategy of the National Intelligence Service (NIS). He was put under the highest level of monitoring, as the intelligence community obtained a death threat from the North.
Ko served in the North’s Foreign Ministry from 1978 to 1991. He defected from his post as the first secretary of the North Korean Embassy in the Republic of Congo in 1991.
“I was told by the police that they had obtained specific threats,” Ko told Yonhap News Agency. “I was normally guarded by two agents, but the number has increased to eight.”
The police also improved security measures for Park Sang-hak, a North Korean defector currently leading the campaign to send anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border using balloons.
The North has previously assassinated a high-profile defector in the South. Yi Han-yong, nephew of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s mistress Song Hye-rim, defected to the South in 1982 while studying in Switzerland. He was shot in February 1997 by two assailants suspected of being agents from North Korean special forces. He died in a hospital later that month.
The NIS informed the government and the ruling party Thursday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had ordered the country’s intelligence agencies to prepare for terror attacks against the South. In addition to threats on cyberattacks and attacks on public facilities, assassination and kidnapping of high-value targets were also feared. [Joong Ang lbo]
Police have apprehended a suspect who allegedly planted a fake explosive device with a threatening letter written in Arabic at Incheon International Airport.
The Incheon International Airport Police said Thursday that they detained the 36-year-old Korean man, surnamed Yu, at 11:30 p.m., Wednesday, at his home in Guro, Seoul.
The action came five days after he left the package containing a butane gas canister in a men’s bathroom at the airport on Jan. 29.
“Yu admitted that he made the box at home based on methods described in a film, and left it in the restroom,” Chung Sung-chae, head of the airport police, said in a press briefing. “He said he did so out of a grudge toward society.” [Korea Times]
A threat memo found at Incheon International Airport, released by the police on Jan. 31, 2016, says in Arabic, “This is the last warning to you. God will punish.” The memo was found on Jan. 29 at the airport, the country’s main gateway, west of Seoul, inside a box that initially was suspected of carrying explosives. It was later found to hold two butane canisters taped to a water bottle. The memo was printed and had grammatical errors, according to the police. (Photo provided by the Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency) (Yonhap)
