History repeated: Coup lands Kim Jong-pil prime minister job
By Edward Neilan
Mastermind of Park Chung-hee takeover has cut a deal with Korean President Kim Dae-jung.
TOKYO (JP): The coup d'etat of May 196l that brought Maj. Gen. Park Chung-hee to power had a textbook quality about it.
Its architect was a 35-year-old colonel with a strategist's mind, Kim Jong-pil.
That's the same Kim Jong-pil, now 72, who was sitting quietly at the inauguration of new President Kim Dae-jung on Feb.25, wearing a faint Chung Chong Namdo (province) smile.
Through another brilliant political chess move, "J.P." has made the presidency possible for Kim Dae-jung and won a deal to be named prime minister for the second time (the first, 1971-73) in the president's new cabinet. Furious opposition to this maneuver, by politicians who can't match J.P. in the brains department, may lead to some trouble.
So thorough were the preparations for the 1961 coup that a guard at a checkpoint on Seoul's outskirts, seeing the advancing tank column, threw aside his rifle, raised his arms over his head in a gesture of surrender and shouted: "Im-min-gun, mansei" or "Long live the North Korean army!" He thought it was an invasion from the Communist north.
Another anecdote, likewise perhaps apocryphal, was that a U.S. Army adviser saluted smartly as his jeep was allowed to join the line of tanks, and rode as far as the officer's club at Yongsan without realizing he was near the front of a procession bent on military overthrow of the government.
The American officer's presence in the phalanx, spotted by a Korean reporter, was one reason why it was rumored that the U.S. supported, even participated in, the coup.
Kim Jong-pil's role as founder of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) and his designation by Park to negotiate improved ties with Japan were achievements of the ensuing years.
The KCIA's tactics were about as subtle as a trainwreck.
Although an unabashed admirer of Park Chung-hee, Kim Jong-pil and another aide, Lee Hu-rak, for their bold conception of a new Korea, I could never forgive them for allowing physical beatings of close journalist friends of mine in the name of national security.
A few years ago, at his home in Singdang-dong, I asked J.P. if he would favor another coup d'etat someday.
"We have democracy now. There is no place for a violent takeover in the moden Korea," he said.
Kim Jong-pil has always been a favorite of his provincial followers, but he could only muster eight percent of the national vote in running third to Roh Tae-woo, Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung in the 1987 presidential election.
But his role as the quintessential back room player is unquestioned.
Teaming with businessman Park Tae-joon, a Waseda University graduate in 1946 and later in the same class as J.P. at the Korean Military Academy (1948), the pair shaped the conservative United Liberal Democrat (UDL) party. They linked up with Kim Dae- jung's National Congress for New Politics (NCNP) to check what they saw as the arrogance of the ruling Grand National Party (GNP).
Park had presidential aspirations but got nowhere. He has been president of Pohang Iron and Steel, head of the Korea-Japan Parliamentarians' League and has even more contacts in Japan than J.P.
The intense factionalism that characterizes Korean politics may prevent J.P. from realizing his goal of becoming an influential prime minister under Kim Dae-jung and eventually changing the presidential style of government to a parliamentary form midway through President Kim's term. This was part of the deal made in getting Kim Dae-jung elected.
Once upon a time there were Three Kims -- Kim Young-sam, Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-pil -- each of whom wanted to become South Korea's leader. None was given much of a chance to succeed. But now, two longshots have become president in succession.
And then there was one.