[KS] KAL-858 bombing

[Afostercarter at aol.com]

Just a couple of comments:

1. To survive publicly in the North, Shin & Choi obviously
would have to claim to be there voluntarily. (Under duress
to deny any duress, one might say.)

2. The Harrold reference puzzles me. A fascinating memoir,
but with a rudimentary index. The only reference I can find
to KAL 858, on pp 84-85, is non-committal on the DPRK's
culpability regarding this and other terrorist acts. If anything,
I read him as implicitly endorsing that possibility.
Or is there further discussion elsewhere in the book?

cheers
Aidan FC


In a message dated 04/05/2006 19:00:35 GMT Standard Time, aoverl at yahoo.co.uk 
writes:


> Subj:Re: [KS] KAL-858 bombing 
> Date:04/05/2006 19:00:35 GMT Standard Time
> From:aoverl at yahoo.co.uk
> Reply-to:koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
> To:koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
> Sent from the Internet 
> 
> 
> 
> Dear Michael (if I may),
>  
> the Hungarian diplomatic documents I found about the KAL-858 case seem to 
> confirm North Korea's involvement in the destruction of the airplane, but at 
> the same time they refute certain elements of the "official" South Korean 
> version of the story. I am of the opinion that Kim Hyong-hui's so-called memoirs 
> should not be considered a credible source, since the author(s) seem(s) to 
> have deliberately distorted the facts in several cases. For this reason, I would 
> like to read some detailed and objective analysis of the KAL-858 bombing, 
> either from a political or a purely technical perspective. Is there any list 
> member who may help me in finding such a publication (preferably in English, 
> German, French or Russian)? I would be also interested in reading more details 
> about Harrold's argument, since his book is unavailable for me for the time 
> being.
>  
> All the best,
> Balazs     
> 
> 
> >> Regarding Aidan Foster-Carter's query about  whether Shin Sang-ok went to 
>> Norh Korea involuntarily or otherwise, the current (inconclusive) state of 
>> knowledge/opinion seems best summed up in the obituary in the Independent, 
>> written by the doyen of western Korean cinema specialists, Tony Rayns:
>> In January 1978, Shin's ex-wife Choi Eun-Hee disappeared while working on a 
>> film in Hong Kong. Shin went to Hong Kong "to investigate" and himself 
>> disappeared in July. Both of them turned up in North Korea and established a new 
>> film company in Pyongyang in 1983. The South's National Security Planning 
>> Agency issued a statement in 1984 acknowledging that the famous ex-couple had 
>> been kidnapped, but Shin issued a counter-statement (under duress, he later 
>> claimed) that they had willingly defected to work in the North.
>> As for the downing of KAL858 in 1987 (about which Shin himself directed a 
>> film, "Mayumi",  in 1990), I daresay Prof. Foster-Carter has read "Comrades 
>> and Strangers" by Michael Harrold, who was living in Pyongyang what the time 
>> of the incident, and insisted that such an act would have been 
>> counterproductive for the North Korean government.  An interesting, though also 
>> inconclusive, argument.
>> 
>> 
> 

Subj:   Re: [KS] The late Shin Sang-ok, and other mysteries     
Date:   04/05/2006 16:54:43 GMT Standard Time   
From:   mgduffy45 at hotmail.com   
Reply-to:   koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws   
To: koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws   
Sent from the Internet (Details)    
    


Regarding Aidan Foster-Carter's query about  whether Shin Sang-ok went to 
Norh Korea involuntarily or otherwise, the current (inconclusive) state of 
knowledge/opinion seems best summed up in the obituary in the Independent, written 
by the doyen of western Korean cinema specialists, Tony Rayns:

In January 1978, Shin's ex-wife Choi Eun-Hee disappeared while working on a 
film in Hong Kong. Shin went to Hong Kong "to investigate" and himself 
disappeared in July. Both of them turned up in North Korea and established a new film 
company in Pyongyang in 1983. The South's National Security Planning Agency 
issued a statement in 1984 acknowledging that the famous ex-couple had been 
kidnapped, but Shin issued a counter-statement (under duress, he later claimed) 
that they had willingly defected to work in the North.

As for the downing of KAL858 in 1987 (about which Shin himself directed a 
film, "Mayumi",  in 1990), I daresay Prof. Foster-Carter has read "Comrades and 
Strangers" by Michael Harrold, who was living in Pyongyang what the time of the 
incident, and insisted that such an act would have been counterproductive for 
the North Korean government.  An interesting, though also inconclusive, 
argument.



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