In the early evening of Oct. 26, 1979, the Korean President Park Chung-hee sat down to dinner for the last time. The subject on his mind was the eruption of civil unrest after the expulsion of the opposition leader Kim Young-sam from the National Assembly for continuing to criticize Park’s repressive policies.
His choice of dinner companions reflected his concerns, the Korean CIA director, Kim Jae-kyu, chief bodyguard Cha Ji-chul, who had become increasingly powerful, and chief Blue House secretary, the former KCIA director Kim Gae-won.
The four men had known each other for many years. All had been military officers and had participated in the military coup which had put Park in power 18 years earlier. They dined in a restaurant in the KCIA annex in the Blue House compound.
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