i the envelope, according to a State De-
took the cash straight to the Blue House,
_ Park Chung Hee’s compound in Seoul. The
_ &tvelope had been slipped to Nidecker by
_ Park Chong Kyu, who was then the dictator’s
 Dodyguard. Actually, he was much more
than that, holding whatin the United States is
the equivalent post of head of the Secret Ser-
' Vice. But the relationship with Park Hung

the exception of two or three top ministers,
this ‘‘bodyguard”’ was the dictator’s closest
’ Confidante.

| When the issue was brought up with the
» Minister of Information, he dismissed it as a
Jeu unauthorized affair of the ‘‘body-

/ guard” who apparently has a lot to learn
) about manners.
|’ “Perhaps he was simply trying to express
his hospitality,” said the Minister, Kim Song
Jin, a man of impeccable taste. ‘‘But,”’ he
added, ‘‘if the envelope did contain such a
large Sum, it certainly was an impolite, im-
| oe and unacceptable way of expressing

 _ According to Tad Szulc, writing in a re-
_ Cent issue of the New York Times Magazine,

_ CIA station chief in Seoul. There was $10,000
_ partment source. The station chief of the CIA,

Hee was even more intimate than that. With -

~~

‘““By congressional speculations, as many as
70 congressmeri*may be involved on the re-
ceiving end of various kinds of KCIA
largesse.’’ The article, entitled ‘‘Inside
South Korea’s CIA,”’ traces the origin of the
scandal in Washington directly to South

Korea’s dictator, Park Chung Hee.
He writes, ‘‘Park’s abominable record in
-the realm of human rights at home: has in-
deed earned him quite a few critics on
“Capitol Hill and he didn’t want to take any
chances when it came to Korean legislation.
‘Astounding as.iit may seem, Park and his
KCIA advisors concluded that the best way
to create an efficient super-lobby in
Washington would be, in effect, to ‘buy’
American congressmen with favors and at-
tentions, including campaign contributions,

special donations for office expenses, cash

gifts, costly presents, free trips te South
Korea, honorary degrees from Korean uni-
versities, invitations to plush Washington
parties.”

Considering the success which followed,
.the vast loans and subsidies, the advantage-
ous legislation; the freedom to terrorize
South Koreans, the carte blanche to elimi-,
nate the opposition in Seoul, the idea of bri-
bery and corruption was far from astound-
ing. And adding to that the fact that most of
the bribery was done with American funds in
the first place, and quite often with Ameri-
can support, it was downright ingenious not
only in terms of its success, but in terms of its
gall. It was a case of business as usual, only
more of it, with bigger stakes, for bigger
gains. #
It was an outgrowth of a familiar routine,
dating back before Park Chung Hee’s rise to
power, dating back to the murky past of the
South Korea lobby.

There have been, of course, some new

-touches. There’s the Rev. Moon and his

“Christian Crusade.” There was the lavish
hospitality of Park Tong Sun. There was,
until recently, the seductive charm of Sue
Park Thomson, born Park Sook Nai, who had
ingratiated herself with the then Speaker of
the House, Car] Albert. But at bottom it was-
-the old approach, full of time-tested
methods, and indicated a solid understand-
ing of the predilections\of congressmen and
senators, of official Washington, high and
low.

Nor was it astounding that the task should
be assigned to the KCIA. After all, being a
creature of the U.S. CIA, and having free
range anywhere in the United States, there
was no organization as skilled or as well-
placed to carry on a campaign of such mag-

. nitude. And it paid off handsomely, as the

Congressional Record attests. _

On June 3, 1976, for example, the House of
Representatives voted 241 to 159 against a
bill aimed to reduce military aid to South
Korea. A congressional aide pointed out at
the time that the defeat of the measure gave
the Park regime “‘a green light to continue its
repressive measures without fear of a reduc-
tion in military assistance.”

And last December 5, the New York
Times pointed out that ‘‘Five years of lobby-
ing in the U.S. Congress by South Koreans —
some of it legal, some of it allegedly illegal —
apparently paid off last spring with the pas-
sage of a military assistance bill from which
provisions unfavorable to the Koreans had
been deleted.

“«... The unfavorable portions of the bill
would have reduced the number of American
soldiers in South Korea, cut military aid and
limited economic assistance.”’

The Times went on to document that out of —

the 241 Congressmen who voted in favor of
the South Korean position, ‘60 are known to
have received one favor or another from Ko-
rean lobbyists. Beyond that, it is known that
the lobbying effort was concentrated on
legislative leaders who were in position to
influence the votes of their colleagues.”

The pro-South Korea fight was led by Rep.
Clement J. Zablocki, Democrat of Wiscon-
sin, the second-ranking majority member of
the International Relations Committee.

Rep. Zablocki has some curious ties with

.the South Koreans. He serves on the Advis-

ory Council of the Korean Cultural and Free-
dom Foundation, which is headed by a repu-
ted member of the KCIA.

Rep. Zablocki also does a lot of traveling
to Seoul where, according to the New York
Times, he is “warmly welcomed” and has, in
the past, ‘‘been given an honorary degree
from a South Korean university.’’

There were others like him who also ar-
gued vigorously on Park Chung Hee’s behalf.
Both the Republican and the Democratic
House leadership supported the pro-South
Korea position, including the then Speaker of
the House Carl Albert, and Thomas P.
O’Neil, Jr. of Massachusetts, the current
House Speaker.

Both men have been the favorites of Park
Tong Sun, the wealthy South Korean
businessman who has been identified as the
paymaster in the recent Capitol Hill scandal,
a man in the direct employ of the KCIA.

South Korean lobbyists, as the Times likes to

refer to them, have “‘provided costly enter-

_tainment”’ to Car! Albert. They also supplied

him with an influential member of his staff — -
Sue Park Thomson, a woman who has been
identified by Korean and American official
sources as a KCIA agent. She has since been
offered and has accepted immunity to testify
before the grand jury probing the Capitol Hill
bribery scandal.

The list goes on and on and includes a man
who has since committed suicide, the hus-
band of Betty Ford’s press secretary. He
shot himself when it was revealed that he had
accepted favors from South Korean agents.
There is evidence that during the Nixon
years the KCIA went directly to the White
House for the express purpose of making a
“blanket offer... .”’

It’s been pointed out time and again that
the present activities of the KCIA are an in-
dication of the difficulty the Park regime
faced in the United States after Vietnam,
after Watergate. The more unappealing the
product, the harder became the sell. -

According to the New York Times, “‘The

_ best known personality in this operation was

Park Tong Sun (generally known here as
Tongsun Park), a South Korean
businessman and socialite. . . who had
amassed a fortune and won Washington
fame for throwing lavish parties at his
Georgetown Club and the Pisces Discoteque,
both of which he owned. His guests were the
cream of Washington society — even Gerald
Ford as Vice President attended at least one
of his parties. Among Park’s well placed
friends was Richard Helms. While he was
Director of Central Intelligence, Helms often
attended functions at the Georgetown Club
and, according to mutual friends, Helms and

. Park always greeted each other effusively.”

And while Helms was embracing Park
Tong Sun in Washington, while they were
greeting one another “‘effusively,’’ the KCIA
was torturing and murdering, arresting,
framing, executing innocent human beings.

And ona warm spring day, eight innocent
men were hung.

One was a keeper of bees. His name was
Song Sang Jin. He had been tortured. He had
been executed. People had fought for his
freedom. They had fought for his life, and
dost - : :

Two days after his death, some 70 human
beings, Americans among them, fought the
police for his right to a decent funeral.

They lost that struggle, too. One of those
who fought was the Catholic Priest, Father
James P. Sinnott. His words speak for them-
Selves: =

“After the police drove off in their big
buses, we: walked down the street, clothes
ripped, dirty, blood stains on a few ministers
and priests.

‘‘We marched in the street the mile to the
church and had a service for the absent body
of Mister Song. ‘Deliver us from evil.’ The
words took on new force, new meaning.

“Near the end of the short prayer came
word that another body had been taken en-
route to the church and burned, the body of
the 29-year-old who used his one minute in
court to say: ‘I was struck and am deaf in one
earl?

The horror of it all is impossible to im-
agine from-a distance. And yet, even ata
distance it’s too unbearable to endure. What
is happening to the people of South Korea is
an abomination so immense, so intolerable
that the mere reading of it inflicts physical
pain. Pain and shame, shame so deep, so
intense as to make one wonder whether it will
ever vanish.

There isn’t much left to be said for a re-
gime which persecutes the living with such
impunity and mutilates the dead with such
savagery.

And there’s nothing at all left to say about
the administration in Washington which
makes it all possible.

What’s left is the utgent need to struggle
against it all and the firm conviction that
such greed and evil are on borrowed time,
and that decency will soon prevail. That
much is certain. It’s a mere question of time

’ and the more of us who take up the cause, the

less time it will take.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 20, 1977—Page 7