On the night of May 30, JTBC’s “It’s true when you hear it” introduced the life of Kwon Joong-hee (1936-2007), who chased down Kim Jong-un’s assassin, Ahn Doo-hee, with a club called the Justice Bong. The report of citizen reporter Park Do, who covered Kwon Joong-hee during his lifetime and traveled with him to the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to find out the truth about the assassination of Kim Jong-il with donations from readers, was a major part of the broadcast (Related: Dr. Baek Bum, goodbye http://bit.ly/19AUfx).

Dr. Kwon Joong-hee (right) and citizen journalist Park Do unfurl Dr. Kwon’s banner, “The National Soul is Alive” (2004).
ⓒ Oh My News Kwon Woo-sung

Although the program is about Kwon Joong-hee, the pursuer, it is essentially about Ahn Doo-hee, the fugitive. However, it cannot be limited to a program about Ahn Doo-hee. In the past and now, the Korean public’s gaze does not rest on Ahn Doo-hee, but looks through him to find out what is behind him.

It is difficult to say that the question Koreans want to know is whether Ahn Doo-hee is the sole perpetrator or an avatar. As Kwon Joong-hee’s behavior and statements show, Koreans have always been suspicious of the Syngman Rhee regime and the United States in this matter. It can be concluded that they are interested in whether Ahn Doo-hee mentions Syngman Rhee and the United States or not.

Conflicting statements

Ahn Doo-hee claimed to have acted alone. On October 20, 1955, he wrote in the preface to his book The Trouble with Poetry, in the form of a “father’s biography,” referring to the 1949 Baekbeom assassination, “Father, on that day, June 26, five years ago, Doo-hee, the real Doo-hee, not in a dream, took my gun and shot Mr. Kim with my own hands.

“Doo-hee, my father’s child, killed Teacher Baek-beom, whom my father also worshipped in his early years, with his own gun and with his own hands,” he added, targeting the suspicion that there were huge forces behind him. After “with my own gun” and “with my own hands,” he added the phrase “sane. This emphasizes that he executed the assassination with his own will and plan.

People who rushed to Gyeonggyo Bridge after hearing the news of Baek Beom’s death are wailing. This is a window on the second floor of Gyeonggyo Bridge that was shattered by a bullet fired by Ahn Doo-hee.
Baek Beom Memorial Center

In his preface, he repeatedly emphasized that he acted alone. Referring to the fact that he was sentenced to life imprisonment and was given a stay of execution in February 1951, he lamented, “What can I do about it, since some people in society are spreading distorted rumors about me, such as ‘a crime committed by a high-ranking person,’ ‘a crime ordered by the military,’ and ‘an illegal release.'”

He emphasized that his motivation for publishing the book was to make it clear that he acted alone. “He said that he could not ignore the “slanderous language that stigmatizes the reputation and honor of an innocent third party,” so he decided to publish the book.

Although it took the form of my father’s biography, it actually borrowed the form of a “national biography” and claimed sole responsibility for the crime. He published the book because he could not bear the stigmatization of “innocent” America and Syngman Rhee. Even though he borrowed the format of his father’s biography and claimed sole responsibility for the crime, he was unable to stand up to the public and avoided it. His book is at odds with that.

Ahn Doo-hee claimed to be the sole perpetrator in his book, but his statements were greatly shaken by the pursuit of Kwon Joong-hee, who held the baton. A firm statement turned into a ‘shaky statement’.

After finding his hiding place, Kwon moved in next door to Ahn Doo-hee and approached him casually. He succeeded in becoming a go friend with the 19-year-old. Then, using the art of silencing, she stabbed him in the buttocks with an acupuncture needle and beat him with a stick. She then pressured him to “reveal the truth”. This finally rattled him. He began to mention the United States and the Syngman Rhee regime.

▲ Episode 11 Trailer of the identity of ‘Ahn Inspiration’ who was relentlessly pursued for 10 years
ⓒ jtbc

According to a headline in the April 13, 1992 edition of the Dong-A Ilbo, Ahn Doo-hee stated that she “committed the crime at the behest of Kim Chang-ryong (then chief of counterintelligence at the Yukbon Intelligence Agency),” in a meeting with the newspaper’s reporters and Kwon Joong-hee’s group. Ahn testified that Kim Chang-ryong, the head of Syngman Rhee’s intelligence agency, even complimented her after the attack, saying, “You did a good job.”

Ahn also mentioned the US connection. She recalled that안전놀이터 a U.S. military lieutenant colonel attached to the intelligence agency OSS (Office of Strategic Services) told her that Kim was a “cancerous presence that hindered national unity,” which she took as a strong implication that she should “kill the white beast.

An’s meeting with the U.S. military intelligence officer came after the OSS was reorganized into the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on October 1, 1945. Therefore, it is inaccurate to say that she met an OSS officer.

On this basis, one could argue that Anduhiro’s “US behind the scenes theory” is false. However, since the OSS had just been reorganized into the CIA, it is possible that at the time of the assassination, Andouhey thought of the OSS out of habit, or that he deliberately mispronounced the name to reduce the impact of the revelation of the American conspiracy. The part about the CIA being an OSS is not a big deal.

But the testimony didn’t last long. He reversed himself when he mentioned the United States and Syngman Rhee, claiming that he was coerced. This happened again and again. So, Ahn Doo-hee’s statement about who was behind the assassination is still uncertain. However, it is significant that the previous claim of a sole perpetrator has been shaken and the United States and Syngman Rhee have been mentioned.

In particular, she was quite specific about Syngman Rhee. On September 24, 1992, the front page left column of the Dong-A Ilbo reported that Ahn Doo-hee, in an exclusive interview with the newspaper, said, “On June 20, ’49, six days before the assassination of Baek Beom, I was called to President Lee Kyung-moo-dae’s office and received encouragement from him, saying, ‘I have heard a lot from Defense Minister Shin Sung-mo. Do as you are told by people in high places.'”

Kim collapsed in a pool of blood at Gyeonggyo Bridge while protesting the second independence movement, the division of Korea into North and South, and the Cold War on the Korean Peninsula. The U.S. and Syngman Rhee regime brutalized opponents of the division and Cold War order, as evidenced by the Jeju 4-3 Uprising.

This led many Koreans to believe that the U.S. and