"Nosangwon Orders Former HID Unit Member to 'Self-Destruct After Mission Completion'"

Deputy Commander of Army 2nd Corps Testifies at National Assembly Special Committee
"Noh Sangwon Ordered Agents to Be Blown Up When He Was HID Commander"
"Judged That Noh Sangwon's Notebook Plans Could Have Been Carried Out"

Former Intelligence Commanding General Noh Sang-won, who was arrested and indicted on charges of plotting and executing a rebellion during the 12·3 emergency martial law, was testified against by a former commander of the Army Intelligence Detachment (HID) that Noh had once ordered, “When the mission is over, put remote detonation vests on the agents and blow them up.”

Former Intelligence Command Chief Noh Sang-won, accused of premeditating the emergency martial law on December 3 and drafting the proclamation, is being transferred to the prosecution by a transport vehicle on December 24 last year at the Seoul Western Police Station in Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung

Brigadier General Park Min-woo, Deputy Commander of the Army’s 2nd Corps, appeared as a witness under personal protection at the 2nd hearing of the “Special Committee for the Truth Investigation of Rebellion Charges through the Declaration of Emergency Martial Law under the Yoon Seok-yeol Government” held at the National Assembly on the 4th, claiming that due to his past experience, the terms written in Noh’s “martial law notebook” such as “induce North Korean attack” and “shoot to kill” were not unfamiliar at all.

According to Brig. Gen. Park, former General Noh, who was the HID commander in 2016, assigned him a special mission related to North Korea. Park revealed, “We prepared for the mission for six months, and one of Noh’s orders was to eliminate the agents after the mission was completed.” When he asked, “How should we eliminate them?” Noh reportedly replied, “Put remote detonation vests on them and blow them up before they return after the mission.”

It is also known that General Noh instructed, “If the situation suggests the agents might be captured by North Korea, eliminate them remotely inland, and even if they return safely, handle them with the detonation vests before they come back.”

However, the mission was never carried out, and Noh’s “blow-up plan” was not executed. Brig. Gen. Park said, “After hearing his words, I thought, ‘I cannot do this together with him.’ I just needed not to follow the order, and my goal was 100% to bring the agents back safely.” He added, “Because I saw his cruel and inhumane side, the terms written in the ‘martial law notebook’ were not unfamiliar to me.”

According to the Emergency Martial Law Special Investigation Unit of the National Police Agency, Noh’s notebook contained terms such as “induce North’s attack at the NLL (Northern Limit Line),” “blockade the National Assembly,” “shoot to kill,” and “collection targets (politicians, journalists, etc.).”

Regarding the term “collection,” Brig. Gen. Park said, “It is not a term used in special forces. It seems to be a term unique to General Noh.” He added, “Generally, people think the terms in the martial law notebook are just Noh’s imagination, but because of my experience, I judged that if it was Noh, it was possible to carry out.”