Tongsun Park, key figure in 'Koreagate' scandal, dies at 89

Tongsun Park, 89, a key figure in the major lobbying scandal “Koreagate,” which strained Korea-U.S. diplomatic relations during the Park Chung Hee regime in the 1970s, died Thursday.

Lobbyist Tongsun Park, a major figure in the "Koreagate" scandal, testifying at the U.S Congress in 1978. [YONHAP]

Tongsun Park, 89, a key figure in the major lobbying scandal “Koreagate,” which strained Korea-U.S. diplomatic relations during the Park Chung Hee regime in the 1970s, died Thursday.

According to his surviving family, the lobbyist had been hospitalized approximately a week ago at Soonchunhyang University Hospital in Yongsan District, central Seoul, after his health deteriorated due to a chronic illness.

Born in 1935 in Sunchon, South Phyongan, Park completed high school in Seoul before moving to the United States, where he graduated from Georgetown University. He then established a social club in Washington D.C. called the Georgetown Club to build connections. By the late 1960s, he had used the influence of then-Congressman Richard Hanna to secure a contract for brokering rice imports between the United States and Korea.

“Koreagate” began on Oct. 24, 1976, when U.S. newspaper The Washington Post ran a front-page story reporting that Park had been conducting a bribery operation under the direction of the Korean government, distributing between $500,000 and $1 million annually to over 90 U.S. congressmen and public officials.

The scandal caused a significant stir and spiked anti-Korean sentiment in the United States, prompting an investigation by the U.S. House of Representatives committee dubbed the “Fraser Committee.”

Lobbyist Tongsun Park, a key figure in the "Koreagate" scandal [YONHAP]

In 1978, Park testified before a public hearing in the U.S. Congress following an investigation by U.S. judicial authorities. The scandal concluded with one sitting congressman who had received money from Park being convicted and seven others facing congressional disciplinary action. Park claimed his actions were personal and had nothing to do with the Korean government.

“Koreagate” led to a deterioration in Korea-U.S. relations. U.S. prosecutors indicted Park, but the charges were dismissed, and the lobbyist did not face criminal punishment.

After the scandal, Park reportedly continued working as a lobbyist around the world, including in Japan and Taiwan. In 2005, U.S. prosecutors charged him with illegal lobbying, alleging Park had received at least $2 million from Iraq to help implement the United Nations’ Oil-for-Food program, which allowed the Saddam Hussein regime to bypass U.N. sanctions on Iraq at the time.

In February 2007, he was sentenced to five years in prison, but due to health reasons, his sentence was reduced, and he was released in September 2008.

Upon his release, Park returned to Korea, where he lived without making many public appearances. However, in November 2009, he gave a lecture in Seocho District, southern Seoul, titled “The Importance of Nongovernmental Diplomacy for Today and Tomorrow.”

“I am far from being a lobbyist,” said Park at the time. “I consider myself to have been involved in nongovernmental diplomacy with the United States during a time when Korea was struggling to survive, during the 1960s and 1970s.”

BY KIM MIN-YOUNG [kim.minyoung5@joongang.co.kr]