Life and Death of an Assassin

Mun Se-kwang, the 23-year- old high school dropout from Japan who shot and killed the wife of the South Korean president last summer, was executed shortly after the new year. But the flareup of resentment in Korea over what is regarded as Japan’s role in the killing has not died down despite a formal if somewhat perfunctory apology by Japanese authorities. The assassination attempt was plotted in Japan; the assassin was aided and abetted by Japanese accomplices; he carried a forged Japanese passport and a Japanese police revolver. He was trained for his mission on Japanese soil.

What had turned Mun Se-kwang, a young husband and father, into a trained killer? Who are these young terrorists who flash across our television screens as they spray crowded airline lounges with machinegun bullets, hijack planes, break into embassies to murder and kill? Why do they volunteer for suicide missions as Mun did last August 15 when he stood up in a crowded hall in central Seoul and emptied his gun at President and Mrs. Park? His story, as revealed to his South Korean interrogators, is an illuminating case history.

PH

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Peter Hyun

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Mun Se-kwang, the 23-year- old high school dropout from Japan who shot and killed the wife of the South Korean president last summer, was executed shortly after the new year. But the flareup of resentment in Korea over what is regarded as Japan’s role in the killing has not died down despite a formal if somewhat perfunctory apology by Japanese authorities. The assassination attempt was plotted in Japan; the assassin was aided and abetted by Japanese accomplices; he carried a forged Japanese passport and a Japanese police revolver. He was trained for his mission on Japanese soil.

What had turned Mun Se-kwang, a young husband and father, into a trained killer? Who are these young terrorists who flash across our television screens as they spray crowded airline lounges with machinegun bullets, hijack planes, break into embassies to murder and kill? Why do they volunteer for suicide missions as Mun did last August 15 when he stood up in a crowded hall in central Seoul and emptied his gun at President and Mrs. Park? His story, as revealed to his South Korean interrogators, is an illuminating case history.