1974: Mun Segwang, errant assassin
December 20th, 2009 Headsman
This morning in Seoul, Mun Segwang (various similar transliterations possible) was hanged for an assassination attempt four months earlier.
Mun, a Japanese-reared Korean who needed a translator for his subsequent trial, tried to gun down dictator Park Chung-hee at a Independence Day speech Aug. 15.
Mun missed Park, but he did kill two others: a high school student; and, Park’s wife Yuk Yeong-su, the seated white-clad figure in the middle of the assassination footage who can be seen beginning to crumple on stage as the camera pans away.
South Korea figured him as the agent of a North Korean/Communist plot, which conclusion Japan and the North rejected vehemently. (Trial evidence also indicated that he read The Day of the Jackal.)
Park got lucky this time, but the autocrat was successfully iced five years later by his own intelligence chief. (Guess what happened to him.)
Also On This Date
Possibly Related Executions
- 1980: Kim Jaegyu, intelligence chief
- 1962: Georges Kageorgis, assassin
- 1910: Ahn Jung-geun, Korean nationalist
Entry Filed under: 20th Century, Assassins, Capital Punishment, Death Penalty, Execution, History, Japan, Korea, Murder, North Korea, Shot, South Korea
Tags: 1970s, 1974, cold war, communism, december 20, moon se kwang, mun se kwang, mun se-gwang, mun segwang, park chung-hee, seoul, the day of the jackal, yuk yeong-su
December 21st, 2009 at 2:15 pm
[...] * Park had survived previous assassination attempts, often authored by North Korea — including one that slew his wife in 1974. [...]