정치

Ban Ki-moon Reported U.S. Views on Kim Dae-jung's Return: U.S. Refused Chun Doo-hwan Government's Request for Support of Constitution

입력 2016.04.18 19:10

Yu Shin-mo

Diplomatic documents from 1985 disclosed

Ban Ki-moon Reported U.S. Views on Kim Dae-jung's Return: U.S. Refused Chun Doo-hwan Government's Request for Support of Constitution

When former President Kim Dae-jung, who sought political asylum in the U.S., decided to return to Korea in January 1985 against the advice of the Korean government, more than 130 prominent figures of the U.S. academia and legal profession sent a letter to President Chun Doo-hwan requesting a guarantee of Kim's safe return home. Also, it was United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, at the time a foreign ministry councilor studying at Harvard University, who first reported such movements in the U.S. to the Korean government.

Such facts were revealed in the 1985 diplomatic documents, which the government disclosed on April 17. According to these documents, the ambassador to the U.S. at the time, Lew Byong-hion sent a telegram on January 7, 1985 and reported that a group of more than 130 influential figures in the U.S. that sought a guarantee of Kim Dae-jung's safe return would send a letter to President Chun Doo-hwan three days later. In the telegram, Ambassador Lew states that Councilor Ban Ki-moon, who was studying at Harvard at the time, heard such news from his professor and informed the Korean Embassy.

The group of Americans wrote in the letter that promoting trust within the country by guaranteeing the safe return and public activities of former President Kim would become an important turning point in uniting the Korean society. Those that signed the letter include Professor Edwin Reischauer, Professor Zbigniew Brzezinski, Professor Samuel Huntington as well as the president of Harvard University.

On January 30 that year, Councilor Ban also focused on informing the government of the views within the U.S. of former President Kim's return, sending an article from the Harvard Crimson which quoted former President Kim's words, "I hope to ignite the hope of democracy among the young people in South Korea," along with the plans for his return.

정치 많이 본 기사

At the time, the Chun Doo-hwan government tried to stop Kim from entering the country before the February 12 parliamentary elections and in the process of discussing this issue with the U.S. informed them that the Korean government would imprison Kim if he returned before the elections. The U.S. opposed and suggested that they advise Kim to return after the elections and the Korean government pardon him instead. Eventually, Kim returned before the elections, on February 8 that year.

At the time, the Chun Doo-hwan government faced domestic demands for a constitutional amendment to adopt a direct presidential election system. The latest documents revealed that in order to avoid such changes, the Chun Doo-hwan government stubbornly asked the U.S. to announce their support for the government's attempt to defend the Constitution of the Fifth Republic, which stipulates an indirect presidential election system and a single seven-year term for the president. However, the U.S. refused such requests.

A document (left) shows that the Chun Doo-hwan government instructed its public officials to negotiate with the U.S. so that their public support of the government's defense of the Constitution would be included in the press release concerning the summit ahead of the South Korea-U.S. summit in 1985. Another document (right) records a conversation on the eve of the summit in which Paul Wolfowitz, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs refused the request for support by Foreign Minister Lee Won-kyung. Courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs