Former MBC president says imagining Park Chung-hee behind assassination attempt 'lacks basic decency'

Choi Seung-ho, former president of MBC and currently a producer at Newstapa, has weighed in on the controversy surrounding the film "The Assassin(s)," saying it is "not decent toward a fellow human being" to suspect that the Park Chung-hee government was behind the shooting of first lady Yuk Young-soo.

On Wednesday, Choi wrote on his Facebook page that imagining President Park Chung-hee or the Korean Central Intelligence Agency — which reported to him — as the mastermind behind the tragic shooting of Yuk "would deepen the left-right divide in our society even further."

He acknowledged that flaws could be found in the remaining evidence, given that the investigation into the shooting by Moon Se-gwang was conducted in a short period and led swiftly to a trial and execution. However, he said, suspecting the government of the time as the perpetrator was a separate matter entirely.

"I was only a first-year middle school student at the time, but I remember how deeply the public grieved over the death of the first lady," Choi wrote. "I still carry the image of President Park placing his hand on her hearse, his face blank with shock."

He went on to say that "Park Chung-hee had many faults, but no one can deny that he was a giant who made South Korea's economic leap possible," adding, "Can you explain where South Korea stands today without him?"

He also said that if one holds in high regard the legacies that presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun left on modern history, "then a balanced view requires giving equal weight to President Park Chung-hee's achievements."

Choi joined MBC in 1986 and went on to direct programs including the investigative show "PD Notebook." He was dismissed in 2012 and joined Newstapa, before being appointed president of MBC in December 2017, a post he held until 2020. He has since returned to Newstapa as a producer.

"The Assassin(s)," directed by Heo Jin-ho, is based on the shooting of Yuk during a Liberation Day ceremony on Aug. 15, 1974. The film sparked a historical distortion controversy for exploring the possibility of an accomplice and potential government involvement at the time.

In response, the production company said the film "was not made to establish a new historical conclusion or to deny or distort existing facts," adding that "nowhere in the film is any specific individual identified as the mastermind behind the incident."