Ex-S. Korean Prime Minister Kim Jong-pil, a Japan Hand, Dies

June 24, 2018

Seoul, June 23 (Jiji Press)--Former South Korean Prime Minister Kim Jong-pil, who contributed to the normalization of diplomatic relations with Japan, died on Saturday, people close to a Seoul hospital said. He was 92.

After South Korea achieved democracy, he also played key roles in the political world. The first head of the Korea-Japan Parliamentarians' Union, Kim was known as a leader among South Korean politicians well-versed in Japan.

Kim graduated from the Korea Military Academy in 1949 and joined a coup led by Park Chung-hee, a schoolmate in the academy, in 1961 amid confusion after the collapse of the government of President Syngman Rhee. He later created the Korean Central Intelligence Agency and served as its first leader.

As a right-hand man of President Park, Kim took the initiative of negotiations with Japan on normalizing bilateral diplomatic relations in order to help the economic reconstruction of South Korea.

Working with then Japanese Foreign Minister Masayoshi Ohira, Kim drew up in 1962 a memorandum setting out the amount of Japanese economic assistance to South Korea. These efforts culminated in the conclusion of the 1965 treaty on Japan-South Korea basic relations, which normalized their diplomatic ties.

Kim became prime minister in 1971.

Over the abduction of Kim Dae-jung, then a prodemocracy activist, by KCIA agents from a Tokyo hotel in August 1973, Kim Jong-pil visited Japan in November the same year to offer an apology to then Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka.

After Park was assassinated in 1979, Kim served as head of the Democratic Republican Party. He made an unsuccessful bid for president in the 1987 election.

Helping Kim Dae-jung's election as president, Kim Jong-pil served as prime minister again from 1998 to 2000. He retired from politics after losing in the 2004 National Assembly election. Jiji Press