09-151.pdf

explained how the attack had been ordered and directed by Kim Il
Sung’s son and successor Kim Jong Il in frustration over North Korea’s
unsuccessful attempt to block the holding of the Olympic Games.
The South protested against the bombing at the 441st MAC
meeting held on February 23, 1988 and urged the North to admit its
responsibility, punish those responsible and subsequently submit a
report to the MAC, making an apology to the families of the victims.
The UNC/MAC Senior Member claimed that by the bombing North
Korea aimed to create tension so that the world’s peace-loving people
would not come to the Seoul Olympics in the fall. The South played a
video-taped press interview with Kim Hyun Hui in which she said that
she and her accomplice had planted a time bomb in an overhead rack
in the cabin. The North denied any involvement and argued that it was
not an issue to raise in the MAC. Instead, blood-thirsty felons had
fabricated the incident to slander the North. It was planned murder by
the South Korean marionettes manipulated by your side to attain
wicked political aims. 282
Crossings over the MDL approved by both Korean governments
for such purposes as North-South talks, family exchanges and the like
were sanctioned by the MAC. However, it was different when South
Korean university student Im Su-gyông, who had participated as a
representative of the National Students’ Association in the 13th
International Youth Festival held in P’yôngyang from July 1-8, 1989,
crossed the MDL on August 15 on the occasion of the anniversary of
282_ Downs, op. cit., p. 207; Hapch’am chôngbo ponbu, ibid., 1999, p. 411; Kukpang
chôngbo ponbu, ibid., 1993, pp. 225, 446-7; Lee, “441st MAC Meeting: UNC
Demands NK Apologize For Bombing of KAL Jetliner,” The Korea Times, February
24, 1988; Mueller-Lhotska and Millett, op. cit., p. 60. Original quotation marks.
360 Peace-keeping in the Korean Peninsula