The 1998 Sokcho submarine incident occurred on 22 June 1998, offshore of the

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

n city of

Sokcho Sokcho ( ko, 속초; ()) is a city in Gangwon Province, South Korea. It is located in the far northeast of Gangwon. The city is a major tourist hub, and a popular gateway to nearby Seoraksan national park. Sokcho is home to the few lakes: Yeong ...

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On 22 June, a

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

Yugo-class submarine The Yugo class submarine is a class of four midget submarines used primarily for infiltration and espionage by North Korea. The Yugo class was given its name because it was built to plans supplied to North Korea by Yugoslavia in 1965. Design ...

became entangled in a fishing

driftnet Drift netting is a fishing technique where nets, called drift nets, hang vertically in the water column without being anchored to the bottom. The nets are kept vertical in the water by floats attached to a rope along the top of the net and wei ...

in South Korean waters approximately east of the port of Sokcho and south of the inter-Korean border. A South Korean fishing boat observed several submarine crewmen trying to untangle the submarine from the fishing net. The

South Korean Navy The Republic of Korea Navy (ROKN; ko, 대한민국 해군), also known as the ROK Navy or South Korean Navy, is the naval warfare service branch of the South Korean armed forces, responsible for naval and amphibious operations. The ROK Navy inc ...

sent a

Pohang-class corvette The ''Pohang''-class PCC (Patrol Combat Corvette) ( Korean: 포항급 초계함, Hanja: 浦項級哨戒艦) is the low-end complement of the high-low mix domestic naval construction plan of the Republic of Korea Navy under the 1st Yulgok Projec ...

which towed the submarine (with the crew still inside) to a navy base at the port of Donghae. The submarine sank as it was being towed into port; it was unclear if this was as a result of damage or a deliberate scuttling by the crew. On 23 June, the

Korean Central News Agency The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) is the state news agency of North Korea. The agency portrays the views of the North Korean government for both domestic and foreign consumption. It was established on December 5, 1946 and now features onli ...

admitted that a submarine had been lost in a training accident. On 25 June, the submarine was salvaged from a depth of approximately and the bodies of nine crewmen were recovered; five sailors had apparently been killed while four agents had apparently committed suicide. The presence of South Korean drinks suggested that the crew had completed an espionage mission. Log books found in the submarine showed that it had infiltrated South Korean waters on a number of previous occasions. The bodies of the members of submarine crew were subsequently returned to North Korea in a ceremony that took place in

Panmunjom Panmunjom, also known as Panmunjeom, now located in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea or Kaesong, North Hwanghae Province, North Korea, was a village just north of the ''de facto'' border between North and South Korea, where the 1953 Korean A ...

on 3 July 1998.

References

External links

BBC News photo of the submarine
{{coord missing, South Korea

Maritime incidents in 1998 Korean People's Navy Conflicts in 1998 1998 in South Korea 1998 in North Korea Maritime incidents in South Korea North Korea–South Korea relations June 1998 events in Asia Naval history of South Korea

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See also

References

External links