Unsettled assassination

By Robert Park

Hundreds of thousands of Koreans attended his funeral July 5, 1949; millions more were grieving across the country. A relative was but eight years old when Kim Koo (1876-1949), the longest-running and final president of the Korean Provisional Government (1919-48) ― an entity regarded by President Moon Jae-in as having laid the foundations of the contemporary South Korean state ― was viciously assassinated, and once recounted the resultant pandemonium:

"The whole nation was mourning, including schoolchildren. I was a third grade pupil at Samkwang Elementary School when teacher Kim Koo died. We knew nothing about politics at that age, but he was a widely respected man. Our whole class walked to Hyochang Park in Yongsan-gu for the services. It appeared the entire school, all grade levels alike, made it to the funeral ... There were so many people."

Within South Korea, Kim Koo is arguably the most commended personage in modern history.

President Moon unmistakably esteems him, as was evidenced via the South Korean leader's visit to Kim's grave Feb. 26. "Moon's trip to the cemetery also highlights his recognition of the provisional government as the legitimate predecessor of the current government," the Yonhap News Agency noted.

Further demonstrating Moon's devotion to the independence leader, he chose the Kim Koo Museum & Library for an address marking the 73rd anniversary of "Police Day" on Oct. 25 ― in effect, declaring Kim Koo the archetype of patriotism, of a superior sense of duty and of an unswerving fidelity in service of the best interests of the Korean people.

Moon again upheld that the provisional government introduced standards which Korea must ever endeavor to fulfill, and that the safeguarding of "democracy, human rights and the daily lives of the people began in the provisional government."

There are many conservatively inclined Koreans who similarly paid homage to Kim. For instance, erstwhile Acting Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pyun Yung-tai (1892-1969), likened Kim to "your Washington, or Jefferson, or Lincoln" in a May 1947 address to Americans in Seoul.

In 2007, the Bank of Korea (BOK) aggregated data via national public opinion polls and expert recommendations for newly designed denomination banknotes. Kim Koo was thereupon selected to be featured on the 100,000-won bill (yet to materialize).

Notwithstanding, it's difficult to find any positive impressions of Korea's hero within most English accounts of the 1945-53 period ― where, typically, he's only briskly mentioned, and in a scathingly negative or dismissive light.

The most meticulously researched and substantial among English-language works relating to Kim ― and there aren't many to choose from ― is political economist and Eurasia specialist Jongsoo Lee's introduction to "Paekpom Ilchi: The Autobiography of Kim Ku" (2001).

There Lee cites the "pitfall of stereotypes or other reductionist tendencies" together with irresponsibly sourced, demonstrably specious and excessively speculative historiography as among the roadblocks impeding an objective and more precise appraisal vis-a-vis Kim's person.

Yet this piece is not for debating Kim's merits; it's intended as a reminder that the septuagenarian's still unsettled assassination on June 26, 1949 ― shot multiple times while perusing poetry at a residence ― thoroughly destabilized and dreadfully further polarized Korea's populace, arguably, vis-a-vis politics, to the point of no return.

At the time of Japan's capitulation in 1945, Kim was serving as the interim government's head and had a formidable bipartisan following. Consequently, the hit-job targeting him left Korea exceedingly vulnerable, fostered anarchic conditions and was a precursor to the 1950-53 Korean War ― wherein an estimated 4 million people died, with some 70 percent of those killed being civilians. Three days after the slaying, U.S. troops withdrew from South Korea; in under a year commenced the "forgotten war."

Eerily, in 2001 the National Institute of Korean History uncovered that the enforcer, Ahn Doo-hui, then a lieutenant in the ROK military, was both a member and agent of the U.S. CIC (Counter-Intelligence Corps) ― per declassified documents from the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C. The key report, which was filed on the date of the troop withdrawal by Major George Cilley, has an A2 high-reliability grade, and is titled "Kim Koo: Background Information Concerning Assassination."

Ahn was rewarded rather than punished. To befuddle Kim's followers, the assassin was publicized as having been meted a life sentence and maintained he had acted alone in court proceedings. Released within a year, he straightaway was reinstated as an army officer, hastily obtained colonel-status and went on to live a comfortable life in the United States. Ahn died at the merry-old-age of 79 when one of Kim Koo's devotees assailed him under the banner of retribution.

The report indicates that the CIC was privy to Kim's assassination and had coordinated with Ahn Doo-hui. Moreover, it suggests that the assassinations of respected Korean independence activist Yo Un-hyong (1886-1947) as well as Chang Duk-soo (1894-1947), another prominent figure, were masterminded by the terrorist organization "Baikyi-sa" ― which Ahn was dedicated to (by blood oath). Baikyi-sa, accordingly, had enjoyed a critical level of cooperation with the CIC.

Perchance securing justice for Korea's slain independence leaders within this context may seem unrealistic; nevertheless, materially honoring those who died in such an underhanded and extralegal fashion while laboring for Korea's reconstruction is an ethical imperative of the first order. There are acute implications for failing to do so ― for if Korea is powerless to obtain redress for its most respected leaders, the same could be inferred of its capacity to protect the broader populace.

A first step would be to pursue an official apology from the entities involved, and the plot obviously extended well beyond Ahn Doo-hui.

The author is a nonpartisan humanitarian, human rights advocate and former prisoner of conscience. He is a founding member of the nonpartisan Worldwide Coalition to Stop Genocide in North Korea, a nonprofit working to provide life-saving resources to victims and their families in North Korea.