'71 KOREA EVIDENCE FAILED TO REACH PROBERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81M00980R000600200005-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 18, 2004
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: March 22, 1978
• Content Type: NSPR

ARTICLE APPEARED WASHINGTON STAR (GREEN LINE)
ON PAGE -I Approved For ReleaU 24B5IVlT8CIA-RDP81 M00980R000600200005=9
~Lo .
71 6COR?A EV[~ENC? FAiLED TO REACH P
By Walter Taylor.. ` ;'
Washington Star Staff Writer.
information reached< the proper, THE CONGRESSMAN reported to have re-
investigative authorities, new con-j commipayments from Park was
former by su -
gressional testimony. indicates. Rep.
Investigations involving Korean- Hanna, D-Calif., who pleaded guilty last week to
born businessman Tongsun Park in f conspiring in the South Korean scheme.
the early 1970s, by three federal agen-. The material made public by the subcommittee
ties all failed to uncover the fact that ! reveals that Hoover. prepared top secret, "eyes
`he was linked ?withthe Korean CIA. only" memoranda on the intelligence reports for
Yet, according to the new evidence, ~ then-Attorney General John N. Mitchell and Henry
'American intelligence:,agents, the. Kissinger, President Nixon 's chief foreign. policy
..director of the FI#I andpossibly sen- adviser at that time. .
for officials of the-Nixon - At the same time, however, he warned the two
;`tiro f learned ateabout.the same time Nixon administration officials that the source of
that Park and' other, suspected Ko the information "is extremely sensitive and such
operation as to preclude any investigation whatsoever" or
reap operatives were en aged in an
ion that allegedly incl uded the any dissemination of the intelligence material.
bribing of that . In the most bizarre turn of events yesterday,
This of U.S. congressmen
sketcongressmen hed in de-Mitchell, on medical furlough from an Alabama
paradox was. . prison where he is serving a one-to-four-year sen-
tail, during a hearing yesterday by a tense in the Watergate cover-up case, testified that
House 'International Relations sub- he never saw most of the memoranda prepared for
committee that is investigating what his an&Kissinger's eyes only.
actions,. if any, federal authorities He acknowledged receiving one document` from
took to blunt what has become the Hoover concerning the Korean matter, a Sept. 30,
Korean influence-buying scandal. 1971, letter citing'the alleged connection between
:,;"THIS IS A VERY: disturbing the KCIA and Thomson, the Albert aide.
.record we've 'develoned." suhenm. Mitchell testified that he was so surprised and
early is 1971 that probably could
.have thwarted improper South Ko-
,
D-Minn., said after yesterday's ses-
sion. "It defies explanation."
Indeed, testimony and evidence
made public at the hearing showed a
perplexing pattern of bureaucratic .
bungling and, in some cases, clear ef-
forts to conceal, on national security
grounds, information about the ac-
tivity of Korean agents
According to summaries of.'newly.
declassified U.S. intelligence reports 1
made public at the hearing, the late
director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover,
was advised of the South Korean ac-
_tivities beginning in September 1971. j
Among other things, the reports to
Hoover alleged that two congres-
sional staff aides were "connected
with the KCIA" at that time, that
Park already had made payments to
one member of Congress,. that Park
was "acting under-.KCIA direction"
and that the South Korean govern-
ment "was directly involved, in di-
recting the contribution of several I
hundred thousand dollars to the
Democratic Party."
The source 'of the reports, a U.S. i
intelligence agency, was censored
;'.from. the documents made public by
mittee Chairman Donald M. Fraser
the subcommittee, as were the names of Americans
mentioned in them. It was learned, however, that
the original reports named Suzi Park Thomson, an
aide to former House Speaker Carl Albert, as one of
he congressional employees said to have had KCIA
connections.
11V11GG1 IICU "UVUL Lll's" its 4LlV,a 1.11[14 r Ga ov?u . a?,
visited Albert in the pea er's office to discuss the
report. ,
Albert, he reported,, had been "rather passive"
on hearing the allegation and had defended Thom-
son as a "nice young lady who had an American. education." He said Albert had added that Thom-
son was working in a "non sensitive" job in his
office and that he saw no reason for any action
against her on the basis of the intelligence report.
Thomson, in fact, remained on Albert staff until
.he retired from the House at the end of 1976. . ,
Mitchell told the subcommittee he never saw
other memos that supposedly were prepared for
him, including a Nov. 24, 1971 document that al-
leged that the Blue House, South Korea's presiden-
tial pal ce, was involved in a six-figure contribu-
tion to the Democratic Party.
"I'M SURE I would remember," Mitchell said.
"There is a reference in the memorandum to hun-
dreds rl
of thousands of dollars being transferred by I
the Koreans to the Democratic Party in connection
with an election I had just been through managing
on the Republican side. . .}
"There is a reference to a president (South Ko-
rean President Park Chung Hee) in here and also-
a reference that a congressman had been bought
off. I'm sure I' would recognize it and remember: 1
it." -
One of the documents Mitchell said he had not
previously seen bore his initials, normally an indi-
cation that he had received the material. But the
former attorney general said he had not placed the
-L-;n son the document - -
g
Under generally friendly questioning by Fraser,
Mitchell said he could provide no explanation for
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