Subcommittee on International Organizations of the Committee on International Relations
1976–1977 U.S. committee on Koreagate
The Subcommittee on International Organizations of the Committee on International Relations (also known as the Fraser Committee) was a committee of the U.S. House of Representatives which met in 1976 and 1977 and conducted an investigation into the "Koreagate" scandal.[1] It was chaired by Representative Donald M. Fraser of Minnesota. The committee's 447-page report, made public on November 29, 1977, reported on plans by the National Intelligence Service (South Korea) (KCIA) to manipulate American institutions to the advantage of South Korean government policies, overtly and covertly.[2]
Hearings
The committee conducted an extensive investigation into South Korea–United States relations, and held a series of hearings. The committee's hearings were highly publicized, and the term "Koreagate" began to be used by American news media outlets at the time.[3]
During these hearings, former KCIA director Kim Hyong-uk testified that he had offered favors to Pak Tong-sun in exchange for the latter's efforts to lobby in Washington, D.C.[4] Kim also testified that a month before the hearings, South Korean president Park Chung Hee had attempted to dissuade him from testifying, and had ordered his kidnapping or assassination if he proceeded to testify.[5]
The committee made its findings public in what became known as the "Fraser report". The committee's report that there were South Korean plans to plant an intelligence network in the White House and to influence the United States Congress, newsmedia, clergy, and educators.[8][9] The report found that Korean businessman Tongsun Park had begun lobbying for in 1970, immediately after Nixon withdrew the U.S. Seventh Army division from South Korea.[1]
The report of the committee also found that the KCIA planned to grant money to American universities in order to attempt to influence them for political purposes.[13] It also said that the KCIA had harassed and intimidated Korean people living in the United States if they protested against Republic of Korea government policies.[14]
The ethics committee censured Edward R. Roybal for failing to report that he had received a $1,000 gift from Park.[16] Two other congressmen, Charles H. Wilson and John J. McFall were reprimanded. A fourth congressman, Edward J. Patten, was found not guilty.[17] The committee investigated claims that Edward Derwinski had leaked confidential information to South Korean officials, but the inquiry ended inconclusively.[18]
Kim Hyong-uk disappeared in October 1979, and was reportedly assassinated on the orders of Kim Jae-kyu, then-director of the KCIA.[19]
^South Korea's Academic Lobby, Bruce Cummings, Japan Policy Research Center, University of San Francisco, May 1996, "The U.S. House investigation of Koreagate (known as the Fraser committee, after its head, Donald Fraser, a Democrat from Minnesota) got hold of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency's 1976 plan for operations in the U.S., which contained a section titled "Operations in Academic and Religious Circles." It called for spreading money around to change the attitudes of anti-ROK scholars in the U.S. The committee concluded that:'...the Korean Government attempted to use grants to influence American universities for political purposes. . . .The KCIA played a large role in these efforts.'"