hankyoreh

By Kwon Tae-ho, Washington correspondent

The U.S. recently declassified 57 documents titled ‘Korean Air (KAL) 858’. According to the documents, the U.S. interrogated Kim Hyon-hui and concluded she was the North Korean agent responsible for the explosion of Korean Airlines flight 858 in November 1987.

“Some of the U.S. government’s secret documents might be open after 25 years,” a diplomatic source said. “The documents were disclosed by the rule of U.S. Department of State.”

According to the documents, the U.S. Embassy in Korea reported to that U.S. authorities investigated Kim Hyon-hui under direct U.S. government control. They showed her photos of 26 suspects to Kim and asked if she had contact with or recognized them. She pointed out three that she said she had met, one in Budapest, and two in Belgrade.

Based on that, investigators decided that Kim worked for North Korea. It is assumed that the U.S. investigated Kim right after her press conference on Jan. 15, 1988. Before they interrogated her in person, they analyzed her remarks from the press conference and concluded that Kim’s pronunciation and choice of words were characteristic of a North Korean.

According to the document, the U.S. worried Seoul retaliate against North Korea, since the atmosphere in South Korea was volatile. At that time, President Chun Doo-hwan, however, said several times that Seoul would not react aggressively, considering the Olympics and the presidential election later on in 1988.

Chun said in a talk with the U.S. Ambassador James Lily, on Jan. 14, 1988, “We bought Kim a new dress and took her to Seoul’s 63 Building. There are some Koreans who want to take revenge, but that would be the very last option.”

On Dec. 4, 1987, the U.S. Embassy reported to Washington that they had a hard time figuring out North Korea’s motivation for exploding the airplane. According to the report, North Korea wanted to swing the South Korean presidential election in favor of the opposition party, who at the time were trailing the ruling party, but ended up having the opposite effect.

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