A Quick Bit of Korean War History

A Bit on the Korean COMINT Effort is a four-page history of the Korean communication intelligence effort of the Armed Forces Security Agency and National Security Agency during the Korean War. Undated, riddled with redactions, this short history is still informative, teaching us about how poorly prepared the intelligence community was for the Korean War. Lacking Korean linguists, knowledge of Korean military nomenclature, even dictionaries, cryptanalysts pressed ahead, rapidly achieving success and producing "large" amounts of end product that were " of extreme value to the customers." The redaction portion that ends at "the situation continued until the truce agreement was signed in July 1953," probably details the improvement in North Korean communications security that hampered COMINT efforts later in the war. The same is probably true of the redacted portion after the discussion on unclassified COMINT sources.

Richard Chun's A Bit on the Korean COMINT Effort