White Shirts Society

The White Shirts Society (Korean: 백의사; RR: Baeguisa) was a secret far-right terrorist organization that operated between World War II and the Korean War. It was mostly composed of young North Korean defectors to South Korea. It was militantly anti-communist and also opposed the trusteeship of Korea, especially by the Soviet Civil Administration in the North.

Because the group operated in secret, much of the information on it is derived from interviews and limited documents, and is still subject to uncertainty and debate. According to most scholars, the group was founded by Yeom Dong-jin in November 1945. It was the successor to Daedongdan, which was also founded by Yeom in 1944. A number of prominent assassinations and assassination attempts have been attributed to the group, including an assassination attempt on Kim Il Sung in 1946, the killing of Lyuh Woon-hyung in 1947, and the killing of Kim Ku in 1949. But there is disagreement on whether the group was responsible for many of its attributed attacks.

In 2001, South Korean researchers discovered a declassified document published by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration that linked the WSS to the U.S. Counterintelligence Corps. According to multiple interviews from former members of the group, the group trained and sent spies to the North to both gather military information for the U.S. and South Korea as well as stir local discontent.

Its activities slowed after the establishment of the First Republic of Korea in August 1948. Many of its members went on to join either the South Korean Army Headquarters or the Korea Liaison Office, the South Korean military's intelligence unit. Yeom disappeared and was likely killed in the early days of the Korean War.