hankyoreh

Diplomatic documents pertaining to the "Mun Se Gwang shooting incident," which shook the country on August 15, 1974, have been made public. An ethnic Korean man from Japan, Mun shot at President Park Chung Hee while Park gave his Liberation Day Address at the National Theater. It was a tragic incident in which First Lady Yuk Yeong Su and a middle school girl were shot and killed as Mun fired a pistol at the president and his guards responded.

At the time, authorities concluded that the assassination attempt was an organized one, plotted by the North Korean organization in Japan, Chosen Soren, at the order of Kim Il Sung. They concluded that the bullet that killed the First Lady was one fired by Mun, who was charged with "murder with the goal of insurrection" and violating the National Security Law (NSL) in a trial that moved with intense speed. He was executed that year, on December 20.

Despite the findings of the official investigation, there were questions about Mun's motive and what backing he may have had, particularly because the only evidence was his confession, and since the Japanese did their own investigation and came up with different conclusions. There are questions about whether it was one of his bullets that struck the First Lady or whether it came from someone else. The documents that have just been released do not provide revealing answers to the questions that remain. Since Japanese records and the tense activity between the Korean and Japanese governments have been revealed, however, we are a step closer to ascertaining the actual truth. That is a welcome phenomenon both in the context of straightening out Korean history and also the "people's right to know."

Of particular note is how the Japanese, being unable to find any evidence pertaining to Mun or Chosen Soren, concluded that Mun acted alone. You then notice how Park was furious at the Japanese for their findings, and he strongly demanded that they take action against Chosen Soren.

The death of the First Lady was a tragedy, but those were very dark times because in the previous year the Park regime carried out the kidnapping of Kim Dae Jung in Japan and caused the country international disgrace, and in the same year as the shooting the regime announced "emergency measures" in an effort to secure its hold on power. Since they were times in which Korean and Japanese relations and intra-Korean relations were both in a state of heightened tension, there was plenty enough of a possibility that Korea or Japan might have tried to use the incident for political ends. Only when Japanese records have been released and we know about the Kim Dae Jung kidnapping case in its entirety will the history of that time get a proper writing.

The Hankyoreh, 21 January 2005.


[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]