Ahn Doo-hee

In this Korean name, the family name is Ahn.

Ahn Doo-hee (Korean: 안두희; 24 March 1917 – 23 October 1996), alternatively Ahn Doo-whi, was a Korean lieutenant who assassinated independence activist Korean leader Kim Ku on 26 June 1949. Officially, it is maintained that Ahn Doo-hee acted alone, although some Koreans have theorized that Ahn was part of a broader conspiracy,^[1] possibly the CIA.^[2] Ahn died at the hands of an admirer of Kim Ku in 1996.

Ahn Doo-hee
Hangul	안두희
Hanja	安斗熙
Revised Romanization	An Duhui
McCune–Reischauer	An Tuhŭi

Ahn Doo-hee

Early life

Ahn Doo-hee was born on 24 March 1917 in Ryūsen-gun, Heianhoku Province, Korea, Empire of Japan.

Assassination of Kim Ku

See also: Kim Ku § Death

On 26 June 1949, Ahn shot Kim Ku four times, killing him.^[3]

Ahn was subsequently convicted and sentenced to life in prison. However, shortly afterwards his sentence was commuted to a term of 15 years by then newly elected South Korean president Syngman Rhee. At his trial, Ahn maintained that he was solely responsible for the assassination.

At the outset of the Korean War in 1950, Ahn was released from prison, having served only one year of his 15-year sentence. Upon his release, Ahn was re-instated as a military officer. After serving under Rhee during the Korean War, Ahn was discharged in 1953, having attained the rank of colonel. After Syngman Rhee fled Korea in response to the April Revolution of 1960, Ahn went into hiding, living under an assumed name.^[4]

Confession

On 13 April 1992, the Korean newspaper Dong-a Ilbo published Ahn's confession. Ahn claimed that the assassination of Kim had been ordered by Kim Chang-ryong, who served as the head of national security under the Rhee administration.^[5]

Death and legacy

After many years of living as an exile in his native country, and having never served the remainder of his prison sentence, Ahn was assassinated by Park Gi-seo, a 49-year-old bus driver and admirer of Kim Ku, on 23 October 1996. The weapon used to kill Ahn was a wooden club inscribed with the words, "Justice Stick". Ahn was 79 years old at the time.^[6] He was cremated and his ashes were scattered in the Han River. Park Gi-seo was sentenced to three years in prison for murder, on the grounds that "the motive for the crime was public anger." He was released on July 30, 1997.^[7]

In 2001, declassified United States military documents dating from 1949 revealed that Ahn had been an informant and, later, an agent, for the U.S. Counter-Intelligence Corps (US CIC) in Korea. Those documents also revealed that Ahn was a member of the far-right anti-communist group known as the White Shirts Society.^[8][9]