hankyoreh

By Kim Kyung-ae, Senior Staff Writer　

Kim Jae-kyu: “With the Yushin Constitution, I thought, ‘This needs to be amended’ [from his time as III Corps commander starting in 1973], but.... I went on to become head of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency [in December 1976], and I thought, ‘This is great. I can use this opportunity to attract the president’s attention using rational methods... And I finally concluded that this would be impossible.”

Attorney: “When did you reach that conclusion?”

Kim: “Last year [1978]... it was last December that I thought, ‘This just isn’t going to work.’ I thought about it, and I was going to take action this April, but the circumstances were not right, so I put it off until Oct. 26.”

Attorney: “What were you going to do in April?”

Kim: “The same as this. The same conditions.”

Attorney: “Oh, so you were going to use these methods and you missed your chance?”

Kim: “Yes. The security had been stepped up, so I put it off.”

Recordings of Kim Jae-kyu confirmed that his assassination of Park Chung-hee on Oct. 26, 1979, was planned far in advance. This revelation runs counter to the claims of the New Military regime that he shot Park in an unpremeditated attack after losing out to chief bodyguard Cha Ji-chul in a loyalty competition. Kim’s testimony indicated that the assassination was originally planned for April 1979 but was pushed back to October because of Park’s increased security presence.

This information, relayed by Kim to attorney Ryu Taek-hyeong at the Mt. Namhan Fortress army prison on Nov. 30, 1979, was revealed to the public for the first time through the first-ever recordings of Kim’s voice following the assassination.

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