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A National Intelligence Service truth commission on Wednesday concluded that president Park Chung-hee probably ordered or tacitly approved the kidnapping of then-dissident Kim Dae-jung in Japan in August 1973.
But the committee said it had yet to secure evidence to prove Park's direct involvement in the abduction, which was carried out by the agency¡¯s precursor, the Korea Central Intelligence Service, at a Tokyo hotel. The committee also concluded that the bombing of KAL 858 in 1987, was indeed a terrorist attack masterminded by North Korea.
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Kim Dae-jung talks on the phone surrounded by reporters at his residence in Donggyo-dong, Seoul after he was released by his abductors, who had kidnapped him in Tokyo in August 1973.
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The committee wound up three years of investigations by releasing a comprehensive six-volume report entitled, "Dialogue with the Past: a Review of the Future." It heard conflicting testimonies on whether Park gave the orders himself, and there was no material evidence. But based on testimony by former KCIA agents, the committee concluded that Park probably ordered the kidnapping. The agents testified they had heard KCIA director Lee Hu-rak say, "I'm not doing this at my own will."
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Kim Hyun-hee, one of the bombers of KAL 858, is escorted to Gimpo Airport on Dec. 15, 1987, wearing a gag to prevent her committing suicide. On Nov. 29 that year, all 115 passengers and crew on KAL 858 were killed in the bombing.
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The committee confirmed that the KCIA worked out the plan for Kim's kidnapping in July 1973, but since no file survives, the commission said it ¡°hit the wall in completely clearing suspicions in the incident." The committee did not specify whether the plan was for a simple kidnapping or murder. Kim is believed to have been released at the intervention of the U.S.
The committee said the Japanese government probably ¡°had full knowledge of the South Korean government's involvement, but it complied with the South Korean government's request to wrap the incident up in a diplomatic way. Neither South Korea nor Japan is free from responsibility for having covered it up."
Choi Kyung-hwan, an aide to Kim, expressed regret that the commission ¡°ended up being irresolute even though it discovered facts that could prove former president Park's direct involvement, including giving orders for the kidnapping and attempting to murder¡± Kim.
In the KAL 858 bombing, the commission concluded the cause was a terrorist attack by North Korea, as the official version states. But it said the haste with which the Agency for National Security Planning, as it by then was, released results of a slapdash investigation ¡°caused some unnecessary suspicions¡±, depending as it did solely on testimony from the surviving bomber Kim Hyun-hee. In that incident too, the commission acknowledged limits to what it has been able to find out since it had no access to the bomber or was able to dig up remains of the plane wreck on its own.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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