Cold Open

It’s October 26th, 1979, at the Seoul headquarters of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, or KCIA.

For most South Koreans, this building is synonymous with interrogation and the brutal intimidation tactics that the current government is known for. But tonight, it’s a site of a very exclusive dinner party.

Around a long table, South Korean President Park Chung-Hee sits chatting with members of his inner sanctum, including his bodyguards and KCIA agents. The man who organized this event is even one of Park’s childhood friends: Kim Jae Kyu, who’s now serving as the director of the KCIA.

These banquets are a frequent event for the President, but tonight’s dinner feels especially charged. Now, more than ever, Park needs to feel like he has the trust and devotion of every man in the room.

By this point, Park has already been president for 18 years, and he’s been tightening his grip on all elements of South Korean life — he’s gained control of the press, the schools, and laws. If a politician dares to oppose him, Park simply removes him from the government. And if civilians protest his leadership, he sends in the troops.

But in this past year, Park has had to do a lot of that. Just a few weeks before this dinner party, massive protests erupted in two cities, with civilians demanding Park’s removal from office. But at his order, the military “took care” of the situation by arresting hundreds of people.

Even still, there’s promise of more demonstrations to come. And tonight, that's what’s on everyone’s minds.

Over dinner, the subject of these protests gets brought up. Park and his chief security guard Cha Ji Chul share the same hard-lined opinion about what to do about dissent — snuff it out with more violence. But Kim Jae-Kyu disagrees. A hard crackdown, in his mind, will do nothing to stop more protests. And if anything, it’ll just make the situation worse.

But the President doesn’t concede.

Frustrated, Kim rises from his seat and storms out of the room.

Park brushes off this outburst. Kim might be the head of the KCIA, but Park is president. What he says goes. So, unbothered, he continues chatting with his security guards.

It only takes a few moments for Kim to return.

Two gunshots tear through the dining room. Park and Cha don't realize what’s happening, but they leap out of their chairs and hit the floor.

His gun still smoking, Kim approaches the two men. Standing over Park, he shoots the President dead.

President Park Chung-Hee is only the third leader of the newly established South Korea. He began his reign with promises of economic expansion, and to bring South Korea onto the world stage as a new, thriving nation. In some ways, he was able to deliver on those promises, but it came at the cost of basic human rights. In the 18 years of his reign, Park left a trail of intimidation and political suppression in his wake. The longer he stayed in power, the more power he sought. And by 1979, it looks like his violent rule has no end. Until, his own friend and confidant shoots him dead on October 26th, 1979.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is October 26th, 1979: South Korean President Park Chung-Hee is Assassinated. 

Act One: The Road To Power

It’s May 16th, 1961, around 3 in the morning in Seoul, Korea, eighteen years before the assassination of South Korean President Park Chung-Hee. So far, the night’s been quiet — street lights shining down on empty streets and storefronts that won’t open until sunrise.

But in the city’s Sixth District Army Headquarters, General Park Chung-Hee is wide awake. Standing in front of a group of soldiers and other military leaders, he needs to deliver a speech that will convince them that the drastic measure they’re about to take is not only important but necessary.

Park is planning a coup against the South Korean government, ran by Prime Minister Chang Myŏn. Prime Minister Chang has been organizing it for over a year, coordinating with the army and navy on what will be an enormous, country-wide attack on a government General Park sees as corrupt and backward.

Prime Minister Chang has only been in power for nine months, but his term has already been marked with accusations of voter fraud, favoritism, and political suppression. Whatever vision he has for the future of South Korea has been muddled by Chang’s own quest for power, leaving the country’s economy floundering and stagnant.

For military leaders like General Park, this is unacceptable. Right now, South Korea is a young country. It’s still reeling from the devastation of the Korean War, and it seems like everyone has their own idea about how to build a functional democracy.

But, to General Park, the path forward is very clear — establish South Korea as a staunchly anti-communist country, and make it a major economic player on the world stage. Doing this, in Park’s mind, requires a level of action and coordination that Prime Minister Chang isn’t delivering. It’s about time for someone else to take the reins and bring South Korea into the 20th century. General Park wants to be that person.

This is what he tries to communicate in his speech at Army Headquarters: that the country is in a state of emergency, and only the military can address it.

In a strong, commanding voice, he tells his men, “We have been waiting for the civilian government to bring back order to the country. The Prime Minister and Ministers, however, are mired in corruption, leading the country to the verge of collapse. We shall rise up against the government to save the country. We can accomplish our goals without bloodshed. Let us join in this Revolutionary Army to save the country.”

The general's speech works and the men in the room are roused, inspired by the bravery they see in General Park's tone.

Immediately they get to work.

Army tanks and infantry descend on Seoul from every direction. They set up camp, then move in, storming government buildings and taking control of them with almost no resistance from Prime Minister Chang’s military police.

But as for the Prime Minister himself, he’s nowhere to be found. Somehow, news of the coup reached him beforehand, and Chang fled the city before Park’s soldiers could reach him.

And by 4:15 AM that day, Park’s army has taken control of all buildings that make up the three branches of government. Soldiers also occupy the Korean Broadcasting Company building and send a message to the masses, telling the Korean people that Prime Minister Chang is no longer in control and that a new era has begun.

With hardly any resistance, Park Chung-Hee is now South Korea’s leader.

The picture he paints is a bright one — a country freed from the corruption that has marked its government for decades; a brand new world in which democracy is front and center, and the nation is thriving.

But for many, Park’s actions in the immediate hours of gaining power begin to contradict his claims of serving the people and democracy.

Park dissolves the South Korean National Assembly, removing the nearly 200 elected politicians responsible for making laws in the country. That same afternoon, he bans political demonstrations, establishes censorship of the press, and suspends the constitution.

But Park is quick to say that all of this is just temporary, and part of his plan. He reassures the public that this new military government will stay in place just until 1963, when a new constitution will be revealed.

Park also promises to hold a country-wide election for president. He plans to run as a candidate but insists that the election will be fair and that this is a new era of democracy.

But privately, Park has his own plans for the future of the country and knows exactly who will be in charge.

In 1963, Park will win this presidential election, making him the third-ever leader of South Korea. He will begin his first of two, four-year terms in office, as much allowed him by law. But Park will soon decide that these term limits are not enough time to achieve his vision for the country and he wants more.

Act Two: Tightening The Grip

It’s November 22nd, 1972 in Seoul, Korea.

Members of the South Korean State Council shuffle into the Proceeding Hall to deliberate over a new constitution. This is now President Park Chung-Hee’s newest vision for the future of the country and his role in it. Two terms in, he’s not quite ready to give up his position of power. And so he's proposed a new constitution, one which will give President Park a level of authoritarian power that no previous leader of the country has ever held.

Much of this power stands from a new governing body, the National Conference for Unification, or NCU. This group would be made up of two to three thousand members, all chosen by Park. Instead of a country-wide vote, it would be these men who elect the South Korean president. The new constitution also does away with presidential term limits, allowing Park Chung-Hee to be president forever.

Not many Koreans are surprised by the proposal of these sweeping powers. Much of the last 9 years have been leading up to this. After first being elected president in 1963, Park Chung-Hee wasted no time in settling into his new position of power. He described his approach to politics as “guided democracy,” where he controlled virtually every component of South Korean life.

This authoritarian approach was surprisingly effective when it came to the economy. Making good on his promise to bring South Korea into the 20th century, Park’s government was able to bolster the country’s industries in ways that had never before been seen, quickly making it one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. But the cost of that success was a consolidation of power by Park.

His administration censored the press, decided what universities taught in their classes, and intimidated anyone who opposed the presidency. And it's in this first phase of his tenure that Park created the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, or KCIA, with the express goal to use it as a tool of intimidation against political dissidents.

So now, after years of building a regime of power and fear, there’s not much of a question as to whether Park’s new constitution will be signed into law. Park has already filled his cabinet with yes men who bend to his demands. And after a perfunctory show of deliberation, the Constitution passes.

This newest era of Park Chung-Hee’s presidency has a name — The Yushin Order, a gross enlargement of the kind of authoritarian power that Park has already been demonstrating. But now, there’s no more need to gesture toward the idea of “democracy”. This is clearly a dictatorship, and Park Chung-Hee is at the helm.

Park cracks down even harder on political dissent, both at home and abroad. The KCIA has already been important to Park, but under the Yushin Order, Park relies on their intimidation tactics more than ever. And to ensure the organization's loyalty, Park appoints his close childhood friend, Kim Jae Kyu, to head the KCIA in 1976.

Under Kim’s orders, KCIA agents seek out and find anyone that Park deems a threat to his leadership. Not even Korean expats are safe from the Park regime — as the years progress, more and more stories come out of people being kidnapped by the KCIA for voicing anti-government opinions. People disappear from Tokyo, East Germany, all over the globe.

But the harder Park tightens his grip, the more the South Korean people start to push back. As the country inches closer to the end of the 1970s, protests spring up across the country, with citizens demanding an end to the Park regime and a return to democracy.

Park’s military shuts these demonstrations down, arresting hundreds of people at a time. But there’s still the promise of more protests and more dissent.

By 1979, these tensions between Park and his people will be mounting higher and higher, to levels the President himself fails to fully recognize. Because it is not just the people that will turn against Park. Members of his own cabinet will also start to question how their President is running the country. And soon, Park Chung-Hee will learn about this opposition the hard way.

Act Three: The Powder Keg Explodes

It’s October 26th, 1979.

Kim Jae Kyu sits at a dining room table at the Seoul headquarters of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency. Across from him are President Park Chung Hee, and his head of security, Cha Ji Chul. The men eat and talk like always, with Kim playing along. But internally, his heart is racing. Tonight’s dinner party is more important to him than anyone in the room knows. Because tonight Kim will kill the President.

The last few months have been marked with growing protests against Park Chung Hee, as South Koreans call for his resignation. And the more people have protested, the harder the military has cracked down, leading to a cycle of violence that confirms exactly what many South Koreans believe: the Park regime is a violent dictatorship and a direct threat to democracy.

But to Park, more violent suppression is the only answer. His head of security, Cha Ji Chul is a huge supporter of this strong-arm approach. But not everyone in Park’s inner circle agrees. Kim has started to wane in his enthusiasm for using the KCIA to suppress political dissent. He’s been pushing against Park’s demands for more oppression and violence, which does nothing to help keep Kim in the President’s good graces.

But unbeknownst to Park or Cha, Kim is not interested in currying favor anymore. Leading up to today, Kim has been making plans of his own. If the President will not change his path for the country, then Kim will get rid of him.

But Kim is reluctant to kill his childhood friend and president of the country. Still, as the men discuss the topic of what to do with the escalating political protest, tensions rise. The conversation quickly becomes a two-against-one argument, Cha and Park dismissing Kim’s softer stance and then even making fun of him for his weakness in face of conflict.

It is at this remark that Kim storms out of the room. To Cha and Park, this probably just seems like an angry outburst. But while the two men continue chatting, Kim runs upstairs to grab his gun. Before returning to the banquet hall, he calls over a few KCIA agents who know about the plan, telling them to follow his lead. Then, he rushes back into the dining room.

Without giving warning Kim shoots Park Chung-Hee and Cha Ji Chul twice each, killing both men in a matter of seconds. Then, Kim’s accomplices shoot and kill six of Park’s bodyguards.

Different people have different answers as to why Kim Jae Kyu killed the President. Later at his trial, Kim will claim that he wanted to free the country from the tyrannical dictatorship of his former friend. But the prosecution believes that Kim wanted to start a military government of his own and that killing Park was the only way for Kim to seize control.

Whatever the truth, Kim will never come to power. Ultimately, he and his four accomplices will be sentenced to death, and executed in 1980.

In the ensuing years, the Korean government will work to re-implement restrictions on term limits and reinstate the civil rights that were scrapped during Park’s reign. That process will not be perfect, but many will be grateful to see it start in earnest after Park Chung Hee’s death on October 26th, 1979.

Outro

Next on History Daily. October 27th, 1992. United States Navy radioman Allen R. Schindler, Jr. is murdered by a shipmate for being gay, sparking a national debate that results in the “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” military directive.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Katrina Zemrak.

Music by Lindsay Graham.

This episode is written and researched by Georgia Hampton.

Executive Producers are Alexandra Currie-Buckner for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.