Former president Kim Young-sam was so infuriated by the infiltration of a North Korean submarine in September 1995 that he vowed military action if it ever happened again and even started selecting targets in the North, according to a former senior Korean translator at the U.S. State Department.

Tong Kim told an audience at Johns Hopkins University the South Korean president refused to discuss the matter with the U.S., to the point where president Bill Clinton had to confront him in person to extract an assurance that Kim would hold discussions with Washington before taking any action.

He revealed the story in a lecture titled “Between Three Worlds: U.S. Negotiations with South and North Korea" at the university’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. “When Kim Young-sam was at the helm, South Korea’s position was to refuse any prior discussions with the U.S. Forces Korea even in the event of the South taking military action against the North, which would have posed a serious threat to joint defense,” Tong Kim said.

When the North Korean U-boat was discovered in South Korean waters in Sept. 1995, “Kim Young-sam was so upset that he even selected a target of attack in the North, but he did not try to coordinate with the U.S., and even refused to inform the U.S. about what kind of action the South would take,” the translator said. “Secretary of state Warren Christopher, secretary of defense William Perry, along with CIA director John Deutch made great efforts to dissuade their Korean counterparts, but they were all in vain.”

It was not until the APEC summit in Manila in November 1996, when the presidents asked everybody except the foreign ministers to leave, that Clinton was able to confront Kim, asking “Is this our misunderstanding? Where are we? Did something happen to the alliance?”

Clinton put the brakes on Seoul’s military threat against the North by saying that U.S. brass were concerned that any action taken by South Korea in the event of a fresh infiltration would lead to the involvement of the USFK, and that would end up inflaming the confrontation with North Korea further.

Looking back on history, Kim said, North and South Korea “have overcome more serious discord and crises” than the one now at hand. In the inter-Korean relationship, too, the have been improvements. When four-party talks between the U.S., China, and the two Koreas were held in Geneva, a whole day was spent arranging seats because North Korea refused to sit face to face with South Korea.”

(englishnews@chosun.com )