This fact was revealed through the record of top level secret communication which dealt with the role of the SDF in May 1980 by the U.S. Pacific Forces Command.

The director of the Institute for Peace and Reunification under the People for Achieving Peace and Reunification in south Korea said that it was hard to guess the SDF gathered information about the area of Kwangju in high seas, expressing strong suspicion about the possible presence of forces in the inland.

The operation of SDF at that time is presumed to be "part of the U.S. scenario" as it was conducted within the same framework as that in which the U.S. deployed an aircraft carrier in waters off the Korean peninsula, he stressed.