From Seoul National University to Special Forces: The Unconventional Journey of Hong Jang-won

Choosing the Battlefield Over Seoul National University

Former NIS First Deputy Director Hong Jang-won is a soldier-turned-intelligence officer who famously set aside an acceptance to Seoul National University to enter the Korea Military Academy’s 43rd class. Born in 1964 in Jinhae, he abandoned the elite academic track for what he called “national defense.” He rose from company commander in the 707 Special Mission Battalion to a covert operative in the National Intelligence Service and ultimately to a deputy minister–level intelligence post. His career is a study in choosing an anonymous battlefield as a lifetime vocation.

Commander of the 707 Special Mission Unit — Front Line of Decapitation Strikes and Counterterrorism

After graduating from the military academy, Hong served as a company commander in the 707 Special Mission Battalion under the Army Special Warfare Command. The unit handles presidential and VIP protection, aircraft hijackings and hostage rescues, targeted strikes against enemy command, and the destruction of strategic facilities. It trains alongside elite units such as the U.S. Delta Force. Hong led demolition, infiltration and close-quarters combat training and was regarded inside the unit as a “professional.” Though widely seen as a potential future general, he left uniformed service and moved into intelligence work.

“Special Forces Are Weak Too”: He Spent 30 Years as a Black Operative

He left the army in the early 1990s as a reserve major and was specially recruited into the Agency for National Security Planning (now the NIS) as a black operative responsible for overseas covert work and counterterrorism. Unlike “white” operatives who work under official covers such as diplomats or trade officers, black operatives have no official identity. Hong volunteered for assignments in high-risk regions — including parts of Africa and the Middle East — where casualties occurred. He helped rebuild collapsed HUMINT (human intelligence) networks focused on North Korea and counterterrorism, and later testimony indicates he was the first black operative on the ground to receive a field promotion to a senior post.

Rising to NIS No. 2 — A Master of Intelligence Operations

Across the ANSP and the NIS, Hong worked both white and black channels: overseas operations, the director’s office, and a posting as political counselor at the embassy in London. During the Park Geun-hye administration, he served as chief of staff to NIS directors Lee Byung-gi and Lee Byung-ho, and later as the director’s special envoy on North Korea, coordinating intelligence and policy. Under President Yoon Suk-yeol, he was appointed in November 2023 as the NIS’s First Deputy Director, overseeing counterintelligence, counterterrorism and foreign intelligence collection. Colleagues inside the agency described him as “the deputy who ran the most field operations.”

“Deploy to Parliament? 707 Is a Decapitation Weapon”

As a 707 veteran, Hong delivered a blunt warning during debates over martial law and emergency declarations. In interviews he described 707 not as a unit for quelling legislative dissent but as a “knife” specialized in decapitation strikes and counterterrorism. He warned against deploying the unit for political ends and called the idea of turning special forces into partisan tools “crazy.” The remark underscored that he still thinks like an operational soldier.

A Soldier Forged by Turbulent Times — A Symbol of the Unnamed Battlefield

If one word sums up Hong’s career, it is “unnamed devotion.” He tore up his Seoul National University acceptance to attend the military academy, endured high-intensity operations and training with 707, and spent almost 30 years overseas as an NIS black operative. His name only began to surface in the press after he rose to a deputy minister–level post and testified about the December 3 martial law episode. Until then, most of his record was classified; he has said he served “on a battlefield where existence itself wasn’t recorded.”

A Retiree Who Acts Like Active Duty — He Still Speaks on Security

After stepping down as first deputy director, Hong continued to speak on military, intelligence and counterterrorism issues through broadcasts and lectures. He drew attention by revealing details of the December 3 martial law orders and by stressing that “intelligence agencies must not become the private property of political power.” He also tells junior military and intelligence officers that “what matters more than a title is choosing, in a crisis, to stand with the country.” His choice of service over academic prestige — and covert work over a conventional path to flag rank — reinforces that his words are grounded in experience, not rhetoric.