Kim Jong-pil
Political wheeler-dealer who founded South Korea’s spy agency
KIM JONG-PIL, who has died aged 92, was the founder of South Korea’s infamous spy agency the KCIA, and the last of the “three Kims” – central players in the country’s political development during the second half of the 20th century.
Popularly known as “JP” to distinguish him from the other (unrelated) Kims – presidents Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung – Kim Jong-pil was a key insider in the May 1961 coup that overthrew the civilian government and brought army general Park Chunghee to power. During the years that followed, Kim – who was related to the president by marriage – remained a powerful figure via his founding role with the Democratic Republican Party, which propped up the regime until Park’s assassination in 1979.
Kim took charge of talks aimed at normalising relations between South Korea and Japan, and served as Park’s premier from 1971 until 1975. Meanwhile the Korean CIA, which Kim had founded in the aftermath of the coup, grew to become Park’s main instrument of terror against his own people. Employing more than 100,000 agents, the KCIA subjected dissidents to arrest, imprisonment and torture.
In 1979 Park was killed by a disgruntled KCIA chief and Kim Jong-pil found himself barred from politics, as were the other two Kims. After a period in America, he returned to North Korea to contest the 1987 presidential elections – but victory went to Roh Tae-woo, a sidekick of the previous incumbent.
Undaunted, Kim joined forces with Kim Young-sam and with Roh’s Democratic Justice Party. The move was widely condemned as a cynical ploy, but it set Kim Young-sam up to win the 1992 election. Later Kim Jong-pil transferred his allegiance to Kim Dae-jung, who in 1997 became the first centre-left opposition candidate in the country’s history to win power through democratic means. He rewarded Kim Jong-pil by appointing him prime minister.
The fifth of seven boys, he was born in Buyeo, South Chungcheong Province, on January 7 1926. His father was a scholar in Chinese philosophy and a lowranking government official. After leaving Seoul National University he enrolled at the Korean Military Academy and went on to work at the army’s intelligence bureau during the Korean War. It was here that he first met Park Chung-hee.
Later he recalled being impressed by Park’s meticulousness, observing: “The most important thing in your life is what kind of people you meet.” Following the coup of May 16 1961, it was Kim who wrote out a formal declaration of the new regime’s intentions. The stated goals were to purge the country of communist elements and to eradicate corruption and ineffectiveness within the government.
Early efforts to normalise relations with Japan sparked mass protests but paved the way for South Korea’s transformation into an economic powerhouse. The final deal, brokered by Kim in 1965, brought in hundreds of millions of dollars in soft loans and reparations. “I went to the negotiating table with the same mindset I had on the eve of the revolution,” Kim later recalled. “I was determined to use Japan as a stepping stone to go beyond the Pacific and Atlantic.”
It was this combination of pragmatism and personal conviction that allowed Kim to remain at the heart of South Korean politics for so long. In public he cut a stylish figure, and was known for his charm and wit. But his hawkishness on North Korea precipitated a falling-out with Kim Dae-jung over the latter’s “sunshine policy” of political engagement with the rogue state. In 2004 he retired from politics for good after his party, the United Liberal Democrats, was heavily defeated in the parliamentary election. He had served as a member of the National Assembly a record nine times.
Kim Jong-pil is survived by a son and a daughter.
Kim Jong-pil, born January 7 1926 died June 23 2018