SOUTH KOREA: Assassination in Seoul

The killing of President Park raises questions and tensions

It was one of the most bizarre killings of a head of state in history. Late last week President Park Chung Hee, 61, strongman ruler of the Republic of South Korea since 1961, was shot at a dinner party by the chief of his own intelligence service in what was first described by a government spokesman as an "accident." Later, officials revealed that it was a well-planned assassination.

Within hours of the shocking event, the South Korean Cabinet went into emergency session. Former Premier Choi...