[KS] US involvement in 1979 assassination of S. Korean president Park Chung-hee?

Sat May 4 10:22:13 EDT 2013

I was not discussing transparency, which I fully support, but, rather, current U.S. FOIA law. I don't think a lawsuit will change the current rubrics. I believe that, for example, the release of VENONA intercepts to the children of the Rosenbergs [and, subsequently to all others] was fully fit, proper, and justifiable under the FOIA even though they were properly classified at the time they were made. An argument that the foreign relations of the U.S. today might be adversely affected by release of the information you seek, however, especially in light of the current ROK leadership, would be strong and might unnecessarily complicate relations for both sides.  

Dr. Edward D. Rockstein 
ed4linda at yahoo.com   

"All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and re-inscribed exactly asoften as was necessary."
George Orwell; Nineteen Eighty-Four; 1949.

--- On Fri, 5/3/13, Katsiaficas, George <katsiaficasg at wit.edu> wrote:

From: Katsiaficas, George <katsiaficasg at wit.edu>
Subject: Re: [KS] US involvement in 1979 assassination of S. Korean president Park Chung-hee?
To: "Korean Studies Discussion List" <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
Date: Friday, May 3, 2013, 11:15 PM

Dear Dr. Rock:

Call me naïve but I think transparency would make for a more peaceful world. After all, 34-year-old events are beyond any reasonable time for state secrets to be kept. 

Archimedes Patti, who honored his OSS secrecy oath for 3 decades, was permitted to acknowledge that Ho Chi-Minh was American OSS Agent 019 during World War 2.

George Katsiaficas

From: "Dr. Edward D. Rockstein" <ed4linda at yahoo.com>

Reply-To: Korean Studies Discussion List <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>

Date: Thursday, May 2, 2013 10:38 AM

To: Korean Studies Discussion List <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>

Subject: Re: [KS] US involvement in 1979 assassination of S. Korean president Park Chung-hee?

I don't know about any U.S. involvement in the 1979 assassination or not, but I do know that there are nine types of information exempted from release under FOIA. The first clearly is:
"Those documents properly classified as secret in the interest of national defense or
foreign policy."  [emphasis added]

Dr. Edward D. Rockstein

ed4linda at yahoo.com   

"All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and re-inscribed exactly asoften as was necessary."

George Orwell; Nineteen Eighty-Four; 1949.

--- On Thu, 5/2/13, Katsiaficas, George <katsiaficasg at wit.edu> wrote:

From: Katsiaficas, George <katsiaficasg at wit.edu>

Subject: [KS] US involvement in 1979 assassination of S. Korean president Park Chung-hee?

To: "Korean Studies Discussion List" <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>

Date: Thursday, May 2, 2013, 9:42 AM

On April 29, 2013, a lawsuit was filed against the CIA for refusing to release documents related to US involvement in the 1979 assassination of South Korean President Park Chung-hee as well as US involvement in
 his seizure of power in a 1961 military coup d’etat.  Park ruled South Korea with an iron fist from 1961-1979, until he was assassinated by his own KCIA chief.

This assassination follows a pattern of US involvement in the overthrow of governments in Iran (1953), Guatemala (1954), Brazil (1964), and Chile (1973).

More than three years ago, Professor George Katsiaficas of Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston sought all relevant documents in two separate Freedom of Information Act requests. The CIA has stonewalled
 his requests, compelling him to take legal action.

For decades now, a sizeable portion of public opinion in South Korea has believed that the US was behind this assassination after President Park outlived his usefulness to America interests. The assassin, Kim Jae-gyu
 (former director of the Korean CIA), maintained that he was encouraged to kill Park by a former US ambassador. In the midst of the Gwangju Uprising of 1980, Kim was executed before he could make public his knowledge of the events leading up to Park’s assassination.

Later this month, Park Chung-hee’s daughter, Park Gun-hye—now president of South Korea—is expected to arrive in Washington to confer with US president Obama and address a joint session of Congress.

The lawsuit is attached here and can also be accessed at

http://www.pmpress.org/content/article.php/20130423151755456

For more information, contact attorney Neil Berman at

109 College Avenue

Somerville, MA 02144

(617) 628-1563

njberman2 at juno.com

or George Katsiaficas

katsiaficasg at wit.edu

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