hankyoreh

By Im In-tack, staff reporter
The Truth Commission on Suspicious Deaths (PTCSD) had been the most enthusiastic organization in finding the truth of the 1975 death of journalist and activist Chang Chun-ha. The commissioners of the PTCSD, after working from 2000 to 2004, decided that they couldn’t get to the truth of the matter, but pointed out several times that the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA, now known as the National Intelligence Service) might be behind Chang’s death.
Police initially claimed that Chang died after falling from a mountain he had been climbing on. Kim Yong-hwan was the only witness who claimed to have seen Chang’s fall. According to a 2004 report by the PTCSD, the KCIA hired private agents to monitor Chang, and Kim could have been one of those assigned agents.
The report states, “It is possible that Kim was involved in the KCIA, especially in Chang’s death,” the then-section chief of the KCIA, Park said that as far as he knew, Kim was a private agent related to Chang’s case.
Kim testified that he moved Chang’s body with his own hands. But Kim’s whereabouts was unclear right after Chang’s death, from 4 pm to 12 pm, on Aug. 17, 1975. He didn’t show up for on-the-spot inspection, and wasn’t questioned by police. The PTCSD said “there is a chance that Kim might have met KCIA agents after his death.”
The committee to investigate Chang’s death, organized by the Democratic Party in 1993 under the Kim Young-sam administration, reported, “Kim Yong-hwan doesn’t remember how Chang Chun-ha responded when Kim tried to revive him. He described the accident scene like he wasn‘t there and heard about it second-hand.”
Chang had been under close surveillance by the KCIA and police. The KCIA’s documents read, “We have to figure out Chang’s plan of a movement for constitutional amendment before he really starts it. We are going to block and dissolve his organization. After reporting to our superiors and determining if it is needed, we will go ahead with the operation.”
After Chang’s death, the KCIA immediately became involved. They visited the accident scene at Yaksabong peak in Pocheon, Gyeonggi province, a couple of hours after the death. They said to the police, “Don’t say anything about anything you didn’t see.”
On that night around 12, when Prosecutor Seo of Uijeongbu District Court examined the body, the KCIA accompanied him. Officers from Pocheon Police Station said on the PTCSD’s investigation, “We were completely barred from the accident scene. After inspection of the scene, the KCIA copied the documents of it.”
Based on their statements, the PTCSD decided that the KCIA agents could have affected the inspection. It is possible that KCIA knew about Chang’s death earlier, since they heard the news from Gyeonggi province Police, even before Pocheon Police reported it.
But the question about the relationship between Chang, Kim and the KCIA has not been fully determined. The NIS, the former KCIA, has refused to reveal the documents of hiring private agents, and to get inspected by the PTCSD. The NIS admitted the fact that there was surveillance upon Chang, but they didn’t cooperate with the PTCSD’s request of submitting documents about Chang’s death, but only submitted one page of report.
The PTCSD commissioners voted whether to deem Chang’s death suspicious or not in a general meeting on April 28, 2004. Four responded that it was impossible to figure out the truth of the death, and three called it suspicious.
In the interview at that time, a source from the PTCSD explained their different answers over the issue, “No commissioner doubted that Chang was killed by government order. But we just had some different views and ways of inspecting the accident.”
　
Translated by Kim Ji-seung, Hankyoreh English intern
　
Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]