SEOUL (Kyodo) South Korea on Sunday declassified documents detailing the abduction of Kim Dae Jung, a politician who later became president, from a Tokyo hotel in 1973 that show how both countries managed to "politically" resolve the conflict over the kidnapping.
Kim, who lost to President Park Chung Hee by a slim margin in the election of 1971 and went into self-imposed exile overseas, was abducted from the Hotel Grand Palace on Aug. 8, 1973, taken to Seoul by boat, and released on the streets of the city five days later.
The incident at one point threatened to rupture bilateral ties.
According to the documents released Sunday, then South Korean Prime Minister Kim Jong Pil flew to Tokyo in November that year for a meeting with Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka in which he expressed "deep regret" over the incident.
In that meeting, Tanaka said Tokyo's official position to continue its investigation into the case was just for appearance, and that the probe would in fact be terminated, according to the documents.
Kim said he wanted the Japanese side to "completely forget" the incident.
However, the declassified papers make no mention of who orchestrated the kidnapping, nor show any involvement of Park or members of the South Korean intelligence community.
Kim Dae Jung went on to serve as president from 1997 to 2003.