By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter


The late President Park Chung-hee sought to establish a regional security framework involving Japan and Taiwan to deter the spread of communism from China and North Korea to Northeast Asia in the late 1960s, declassified documents revealed Friday.
The move came as the Vietnam War (1959-1975) intensified, according to the documents.

The Defense Ministry released a 1,700-page diplomatic dossier related to the Vietnam War in which South Korean troops participated between 1963 and 1973.

In a document, Park said, ``With regard to the formation of this regional security mechanism, we must clarify the purpose and direction of it in order to stop the spread of communist forces led by China.’’

Park, a former Army general who took power in a coup in 1961, stressed the importance of participation by Japan and Taiwan in the organization. ``In the Far East Asian region, what other nations except for South Korea, Japan and Taiwan can set up that kind of powerful collective security framework against the communist forces?’’

Park said the country should take the initiative in forming the body before negotiating the matter with the United States, indicating that consultations were also underway with Washington on the establishment of the body at that time.

The consideration never materialized, as government officials formulated unrealistic proposals, such as a multilateral body lacking key players like Japan and Taiwan, the documents said.

About 313,000 South Korean soldiers were sent to Vietnam between 1963 and 1973. Of them, some 5,000 died. In exchange for the troop deployment, South Korea was able to get financial aid from the U.S., paving the way for the country’s economic growth.

The former president increased efforts to thwart communist forces in the late 1960s, following a series of provocations by the North, including the abduction of a U.S. Navy ship off the East Sea, the documents said.

In January 1968, North Korea dispatched 31 agents to the South to assassinate Park. All the agents were gunned down with one captured in a skirmish near the presidential office.

The documents also revealed that Seoul joined the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1975 in return for the U.S. government’s reaffirmation to provide a nuclear umbrella over South Korea against possible nuclear attacks by China and North Korea.

The U.S. was worried that South Korea would develop nuclear weapons programs to fill the security vacuum resulting from the possibility of the partial transfer of the United states Forces Korea (USFK) to Vietnam.

Pyongyang and Beijing were not members of the nuclear treaty at that time.

Choi Kyu-hah, then foreign minister, led the NPT negotiations with U.S. Ambassador to South Korea William J. Porter.

The U.S. envoy stressed the effectiveness of the bilateral military pact, saying, ``The security pact between South Korea and the U.S. is far stronger than a resolution or declaration as far as the U.S. commitment is concerned.’’

South Korea joined the NPT on April 23, 1975.

gallantjung@koreatimes.co.kr