Photo By Erin Thompson | Kim Du-han (left) with soon-to-be President Park Chung Hee, Mar. 1, 1962... read more read more
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by Erin E. Thompson, USAICoE Staff Historian
CIC INVESTIGATES MURDER IN SOUTH KOREA
On Apr. 20, 1947, special agents from the 971st Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) Detachment in South Korea investigated the murder of communist activist Jeong Jin-ryong at the hands of the notorious Kim Du-han.
Kim was the son of Korean Independence Army General Kim Jwa-jin. The general was a prominent figure in the Korean anarchist movement of the early twentieth century, which frequently joined with Chinese and Japanese anti-imperialist organizations to wage guerrilla warfare against the Japanese occupation of Korea. General Kim’s activities forced him into exile—and ultimately led to his assassination—leaving Kim Du-han to live as an orphan in Seoul, South Korea.
Kim committed numerous criminal acts throughout his youth and early adulthood and became a notable street fighter. In the 1930s–1940s, he joined the Korea Democratic Young Men’s Alliance (KDYA), a right-wing anti-communist youth organization. Although he claimed to share his father’s anti-Japanese opinions, Kim and his friend, Jeong Jin-ryong, were later hired by the Japanese Police Assistance Association and were described by the CIC as “legal terrorists and informants for the Japanese” during World War II.
After the liberation of Korea in 1945, Kim was hired by Chang Deok-soo, head of the conservative Korea Democratic Party, while Jeong became involved with the democratic socialist South Korea Labor Party (SKLP). Kim’s fighting background led to numerous violent encounters between the pair and their respective groups. The CIC recorded one instance in which Jeong “drew a pistol on Kim who proved equal to the occasion by taking the pistol away and shooting [Jeong] in the knee.” Tension escalated between the two as political strains heightened in the lead-up to South Korea’s first presidential election.
On Apr. 20, 1947, Kim’s gang rounded up thirteen members of the SKLP, including Jeong, for distributing anti-Syngman Rhee pamphlets in Seoul. During a brutal “interrogation” of these men, Kim lost his temper and killed Jeong. Another SKLP member managed to escape and reported the murder to the local CIC office. The 971st CIC Detachment quickly mobilized and arrested Kim, with Special Agent Richard Killin leading the investigation.
The CIC agents struggled during their interrogations of the KDYA members. Many of the interpreters attached to the 971st held nationalist political ideologies and “had to be cajoled, promised protection, and severely reprimanded” before they would provide honest translations of the gang members’ confessions. Kim readily admitted to killing Jeong, knowing his crimes would receive leniency due to the political climate in Korea.
The trial began in June 1947. The CIC noted that, throughout the trial, “the judge and jury were reminded that the accused was pro-Rhee while the beaten men were leftists and troublemakers of the worst sort.” Despite Kim’s confession and significant evidence collected at the crime scene, Kim was acquitted while another lower member of the KDYA was given a seven-year prison sentence. Angered with South Korea’s justice system, the Military Governor of Korea General John R. Hodge ordered a new trial, this time before a military commission. The U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division was put in charge of reinterviewing Kim and other witnesses, though interrogators faced the same challenges with their interpreters “shading the testimony to protect Kim.” Finally, in April 1948, Kim was sentenced to death, a sentence commuted to life imprisonment by General Douglas MacArthur.
Just a few months later, Syngman Rhee was elected the first president of South Korea, and Kim and many other pro-Rhee criminal and political prisoners were released. Kim went on to become the chief of the Investigation Section of the Korean Youth Corps and Rhee’s personal bodyguard before becoming a member of the National Assembly in 1954. He was involved in several political scandals throughout his career, was imprisoned twice more, and finally resigned in 1966. He passed away in 1972.
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| Date Taken: | 04.18.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 04.18.2025 16:08 |
| Story ID: | 495695 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 113 |
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