Word: parkes
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...present, the most intense speculation focused on the unanswered questions about the assassination itself, now commonly known as the Friday Night Massacre. Nobody disputed the bare facts of the case: Park, along with his chief security officer, Cha Chi Chul, and four bodyguards had been killed by KCIA Director Kim Jae Kyu and five of his men during dinner in a private room of a KCIA building. The alleged assassin and the dinner's sole survivor, Park's presidential chief of staff, Kim Kae Won, were both under arrest, and 30 to 50 KCIA officers had also been...
First, the government had claimed that Park had been killed "accidentally" when Kim Jae Kyu fired several shots at Cha in a fit of anger. Two days later, the government tacitly admitted the absurdity of that version by providing a second "official" account of the killing. According to this story, Kim and several of his KCIA agents had conspired to kill both Cha and the President because Kim had fallen out of favor with Park and feared that he was going to lose his job. That account seemed more plausible, as far as it went...
...that Kim had indeed planned a coup, but that he had developed his plot with "full support and knowledge" of some of the top South Korean army brass, including General Chung. The coup plan, which was incomplete at the time of the assassination, was aimed at removing Park from power but did not envision killing him; in fact, according to a TIME source, the coup misfired mainly because "the general began to have cold feet when he saw the body." Instead of following through with the plot, Chung ordered the detention of Kim and his KCIA henchmen...
...army officers' motives for joining Kim's coup plan stemmed from Park's harsh measures against rising political opposition and student protests. This led the generals to conclude that he was losing touch with reality and was no longer able to govern effectively. Moreover, both the army brass and the KCIA leaders shared a revulsion against the growing personal influence of Cha, Park's arrogant, all-purpose adviser as well as his chief security officer. Kim had a personal grudge against Cha because he had repeatedly criticized the KCIA'S failures to prevent or even...
...fateful Friday, TIME's sources allege, Kim invited Chung to dinner for further talks on "basically changing the situation" in Korea. Around 4 p.m., the general turned up at the KCIA building. Park at this point abruptly invited himself to dinner with Kim. The President showed up two hours later at the KCIA building with Cha and his chief of staff, Kim Kae Won, who was known to be a friend of the intelligence chief but whose own role in the events remains mysterious. Thus because of his planned appointment with the KCIA boss, Chung happened...