Office of the Historian

895.00/7–1947: Telegram

The Political Adviser in Korea (Jacobs) to the Secretary of State

confidential
urgent
Seoul, July 19, 1947.

217. Zpol 924. Lyuh Woon Hyung, chairman Laboring Peoples Party, was shot to death about 1 o’clock this afternoon while riding in his motor car. Assassin escaped. This may be the first of several political assassinations by rightists which have been rumored recently but Lyuh himself had recently spoken of difficulties in his party which he claimed had become infiltrated with Communists and which he was convening in conference this coming week to have a showdown. Hence, [Page 710] it is also plausible to assume that his assassin may have been a Communist.39

[
Jacobs
]
  1. Papers found in brief case of Lyuh Woon Hyung showed his contacts with leaders in North Korea and “shed some light on interplay between various parties in which Lyuh was engaged”. (895.00/7–2547, 8–747)↩