Intelligence Agents Carried ID Medals

Members of Army Special Investigation Service and Counter Intelligence Corps, both former bodies of the present Defense Security Command (DSC) in the 1950s and 60s, carried official duty medals, similar to mapae, or medals imprinted with horses, carried by Joseon-era secret auditors.

On April 16, the DSC displayed pictures of the medals on its website’s (www.dsc.mil.kr) cyber-history corner.

In front of the medal, “Army Special Investigation Service” or “Army Counter Intelligence Corps” is imprinted in Korean, and on the back it is imprinted in English with “KACIC,” which stands for Korea Army Counter Intelligence Corps.

On the bottom of “KACIC” is also written, “The bearer of this medal will not be restricted of action regardless of time and place.”

This became the basis for some members of the Special Investigation Service and Counter Intelligence Corps to disrespect required procedures when investigating public security cases, and gave them omnipotent powers.

A DSC official said, “In order to imbue pride and membership to the unit members and facilitate their work, they carried a medal instead of an identification card.”

The medal was used since October 1950 when the Counter Intelligence Corps was established until December of 1967 some time after it was changed into the Special Investigation Service.

When the medal became a symbol of power, there were many forgeries as well.

According to DSC, North Korean spy Kim Tae Jin and other spies who were arrested in September 1955 carried forged medals.

Myoung-Gun Lee gun43@donga.com