hankyoreh

chairwoman of the Association of Family Members of the KAL 858

By Jin Myeong-seon, staff reporter

Cha Ok-jeong, 75, hates the mere mention of the name Kim Hyon-hui. That’s the name attached to the person who robbed Cha of the thoughtful husband who always brought her favorite fruit back with him when he returned from traveling abroad.

Cha's husband Park Myeong-gyu was 52 when Korean Air Flight 858 from Baghdad went down in the Andaman Sea in the sea off Myanmar on Nov. 29, 1987. Its 20 crews and 95 passengers, including Park, were never found.

Kim Hyon-hui was fingered as the terrorist who planted the bomb. Kim confessed that December to planting an explosive on the plane at the instruction of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. The aim was to disrupt the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, stir up disorder around election time, and trigger a class struggle in South Korea.

Those embers of anger were rekindled when Cha heard the name again recently. Now 50, Kim appeared on a TV Chosun, the broadcasting branch of the conservative Chosun Ilbo newspaper, current affairs programs on June 17 and 18 claiming that she was framed by the Roh Moo-hyun administration and a left-wing group.

Meeting the Hankyoreh on June 25, Cha demanded to know why Kim showed her face on TV Chosun with reporter Cho Gab-je after refusing several meetings requested by family members of the victims. The widow is currently chairwoman of the Association of Family Members of the KAL 858.

Five or six executive members of the association have met with Kim, though the other members "only found out about it after the fact," Cha said. She added that even including that occasion, Kim has "never met directly with family members and apologized."

Indeed, Kim did not even make an appearance in 2005, when the National Intelligence Service Truth Commission was reinvestigating the case. In 2008, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission considered forcing her to appear for questioning, but nothing came of it after Kim proved uncooperative. This is why the family members' association refuses to back down even after two reinvestigations under the Roh administration confirmed that North Korea was responsible for the explosion. It is arguing that no transparent investigation of Kim has ever taken place, apart from the information announced by the military government just after the incident.

But a few years ago, Kim began claiming that after the Roh administration deported her and prevented her from returning to South Korea, it attempted to paint her as having fled because she was a fraud. She also said that it showed her home, a Class 1 national security concern, on television after refusing to let her immigrate or appear on air. She has continued along these lines in her recent television appearances.

Association deputy chairwoman Yu In-ja, 55, agrees. "It is disrespectful to people who lost their loved ones to demand that they trust in investigation findings that are nothing more than a reexamination of things drafted by the Agency for National Security Planning in 1987," she said.

The association was also critical of remarks made by Kim during her TV Chosun appearance, where she said the 1987 announcement "was full of holes because it was investigated and released within a month" of the incident. At the same time, Kim said that suspicions about the true nature of attack were "based on numbers and other minor things."

Yu said the original investigation findings had Kim not even knowing what type of explosive she planted. "Whenever she said something wrong, our side would state the facts, and she would quietly tweak that part in her autobiography," she said.

Cha said she felt "insulted" at Kim's reference to past fact-finding activities as "leftist" and "pro-North" during her sudden appearance on television after refusing to cooperate with investigation efforts by the Kim Dae-jung and Roh administrations.

Even the National Intelligence Service has not given any clear answers on KAL 858. Debris believed to be from the fuselage was discovered in March 1990, but a National Forensic Service examination found no evidence of an explosion.

On June 25, the association proposed that Kim take part in an open discussion. "If she doesn't agree to the discussion by July 15, we will tell the South Korean people the truth about Ms. Kim based on the many times that she has changed her story," the group said.

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