1969 Korean Air Lines YS-11 hijacking

Korean Air Lines

Industry	Aviation
Headquarters	Seoul , South Korea
Products	Passenger air transport

Template:Infobox aircraft occurrence The 1969 Korean Air Lines YS-11 hijacking took place on December 11, 1969. The aircraft, a Korean Air Lines operated NAMC YS-11 traveling domestically from Gangneung Airbase in Gangneung, located in South Korea's Gangwon, to Gimpo International Airport in Seoul, was seized at approximately 12:25 PM by a North Korean operative named Cho Ch'ang-hŭi (조창희). It carried four crew members alongside 46 passengers, excluding the hijacker. While 39 passengers were repatriated two months later, the crew and seven other passengers remained detained in North Korea. This event is regarded by South Korea as an example of the broader issue of North Korean abductions of South Koreans.

Incident

Passenger accounts indicate that roughly ten minutes after departure, an individual stood up and entered the cockpit. Shortly thereafter, the plane altered its course and was intercepted by three fighter jets belonging to the Korean People's Air Force. The aircraft subsequently landed at Sǒndǒk Airfield near Wonsan at approximately 1:18 PM. Following landing, soldiers from the Korean People's Army boarded, blindfolded those on board, and ordered them to disembark. The plane sustained irreparable damage upon landing. A scheduled passenger, a member of the United States Air Force in South Korea, missed boarding this flight due to opting for a military transport at the last moment.

North Korean authorities asserted that the pilots redirected the flight intentionally as a protest against then-South Korean President Park Chung Hee. During their captivity, passengers were subjected to indoctrination sessions lasting up to four hours daily. Early investigations by South Korean police suspected collusion between the co-pilot and two North Korean agents in orchestrating the hijacking. The day following the incident, approximately 100,000 South Koreans gathered in freezing temperatures to demonstrate against the hijacking, including burning an effigy of North Korean leader Kim Il Sung.

On December 25, North Korea proposed negotiations concerning the situation. These discussions eventually took place in late January 1970. After 66 days post-hijacking, on February 14, North Korea released 39 passengers through the Joint Security Area at Panmunjom, while retaining possession of the aircraft, crew members, and remaining passengers. Testimonies from those released contradicted North Korea’s claims that pilots had led the hijacking; instead, they identified one passenger as responsible. One individual reported observing through a window—despite orders from North Korean guards—that the hijacker was taken away in a black sedan. Another passenger reportedly suffered severe psychological trauma during captivity, resulting in loss of speech ability.

Aftermath

The ultimate status of the majority of passengers who never returned remains uncertain. These individuals were predominantly well-educated and from affluent backgrounds. At the inaugural meeting of the families' committee in 2008, Song Yeong-in, formerly with the National Intelligence Service, suggested that North Korea likely detained them for their potential propaganda utility. Oh Kil-nam, who defected to North Korea in 1986 for a period, reported encountering two of the flight attendants along with the Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation staff members Hwang and Gim (listed below), who were engaged in producing propaganda broadcasts aimed at South Korea. Subsequently, he learned from his daughter that both the captain and first officer were employed by the Korean People's Air Force. In 2001, as part of family reunions under the June 15th North–South Joint Declaration, Seong Gyeong-hui’s mother was permitted to visit her daughter in the North, where Seong revealed that she and fellow flight attendant Jeong Gyeong-suk remained close friends and resided in the same locality.

Hwang In-cheol, son of missing passenger Hwang Won who was only two years old during the hijacking, established the Korean Air Flight YS-11 Families Committee in 2008 to urge the South Korean government to intensify investigations into the case. In 2009, he expressed feelings of "alienation" due to extensive media coverage of the 2009 imprisonment of American journalists by North Korea—which lasted 141 days—contrasted with minimal attention given to his father’s disappearance; Hwang has not seen his father, also a journalist, in four decades. By June 2010, he submitted an application to the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances under the United Nations Human Rights Council, requesting an inquiry into these unreturned passengers as instances of forced disappearance. He devoted six months to preparing this submission with assistance from friends. Later, in February 2012, Hwang initiated legal proceedings against the North Korean intelligence agent responsible for abducting his father.

Following this event, the aircraft’s tail number, HL5208, was officially withdrawn from service.

List of passengers and crew not returned

None of the four crew members, along with seven passengers, were repatriated to the South. The ages indicated correspond to those at the time of the hijacking.

1. Yu Byeong-ha (유병하, 38), captain from Seoul
2. Choe Seok-man (최석만, 37), first officer from Seoul
3. Jeong Gyeong-suk (정경숙, 24), flight attendant based in Seoul. Reported alive as of Template:Lcyear.
4. Seong Gyeong-hui (성경희, 23), flight attendant from Seoul. Confirmed alive as of Template:Lcyear.
5. Yi Dong-gi (이동기, 49), printing company manager from Miryang
6. Hwang Won (황원, 32), programme director at Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) from Gangneung. Reported alive as of Template:Lcyear.
7. Gim Bongju (김봉주, 27), cameraman at MBC, residing in Gangneung. Reported alive as of Template:Lcyear.
8. Chae Heon-deok (채헌덕, 37), physician from Gangneung
9. Im Cheol-su (임철수, 49), office employee from Yanggu
10. Jang Ki-yeong (장기영, 40), entrepreneur in the food sector from Uijeongbu
11. Choe Jeong-ung (최정웅, 28), employee at Hankook Slate Company in Wonju

In popular culture

The event is referenced at the opening of the Korean movie Hijack 1971, released in 2024 and directed by Kim Seong-han.