Korean War hero's daughter recalls patriotic, yet strict father

An image of late Army Colonel Kim Dong-seok is displayed in a video played on an electronic billboard operated by LG Electronics in Times Square, New York, April 20. Kim was chosen as one of the Korean War heroes for this year's 70th anniversary of the Republic of Korea-U.S. alliance. Courtesy of LG Electronics

Late Army Colonel Kim Dong-seok always put country before family, his daughter says

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Singer Kim Mi-ryeong, better known by her stage name Jin Mi-ryeong / Korea Times file

Singer Kim Mi-ryeong, better known to the Korean public by her stage name, Jin Mi-ryeong, has mixed feelings about her late father, Army Colonel Kim Dong-seok (1923-2009) who was chosen earlier this month as a Korean War hero, along with 11 other notable veterans.

The late Kim was an indisputable patriot who always put his country ahead of his family. He received dozens of medals from both the Korean and U.S. governments for his service. The younger Kim said she was, and still is, proud of her patriotic father.

At home, however, the older Kim was a strict father. His daughter said she was scared of her father, as she felt his eyes were like a flame of fire, so she always tried to avoid making eye contact with him.

The daughter recalled her father suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and was obsessed with thoughts of having his life cut short because of murder plots by someone harboring a grudge against him. He used to put a dagger under his pillow and a garbage can under the table so that he could use it anytime, in case his life was to be threatened.

Since her childhood, the younger Kim has lived with two very different perceptions about her late father ― a proud, but at the same time, distant father.

"I think he was born to serve the nation," she told The Korea Times in a phone interview, Monday. "He lived all his life as a patriot. He let his wife fully take care of the children and tried to focus on his job. He always put his country first."

She revealed excitement about the news that her father, along with 11 other Korean War veterans, had been honored in a 30-second video played on the electronic billboards operated by Samsung and LG Electronics in Times Square, New York, since April 20, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Republic of Korea-U.S. alliance.

"I wish my father was still alive," she said. "If he was still with us, he would have been thrilled about this. He should have seen and felt this. I'm so proud of my father and thankful that my father was honored and remembered like this for his service."

On April 20, the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs (MPVA), in collaboration with ROK-U.S. Combined Forces, unveiled a list of Korean War heroes, including Kim.

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In a press release, the MPVA said Kim gathered critical information that helped the Allied forces win the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950.

The other heroes on the list are General Douglas MacArthur; General James Alward Van Fleet and his son James Alward Van Fleet Jr.; Lieutenant William Hamilton Shaw, who lost his life in the Second Battle of Seoul, and his father, missionary William Earl Shaw; Army Colonel Ralph Puckett Jr.; Army Colonel Kim Young-oak; Army Major General Paik Sun-yup; Air Force Major General Kim Doo-man and Marine Corps Colonel Park Jung-mo.

Kim's daughter said she is so thankful to the MPVA for honoring her father and other Korean War veterans. "I try not to miss any events hosted by the ministry because I was impressed by Minister Park Min-shik. In his speech at an event held earlier, he said the ministry would do its utmost to honor and remember Korean War heroes because they are the ones who saved this country when it was in peril, and paying a tribute to the heroes is what the government should do to pass their legacy down on to the next generation," she said.

A video honoring Korean War heroes is seen on the electronic bulletin board operated by Samsung Electronics in Times Square, New York, April 20. Courtesy of Samsung Electronics

The late Army Colonel Kim was a descendant of Korean emmigrants to Russia. His grandfather and his family migrated to the Russian Far East in 1919, nine years after Japan annexed Korea.

Thanks to his international upbringing, Colonel Kim was able to speak four languages fluently ― Russian, Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

Born in Primorsky Krai in 1923, Kim went to high school in Harbin, China.

He came to Korea in 1948, three years after Korea's liberation from Japan at the end of World War II. After finishing at the Korea Military Academy, he became an intelligence liaison officer for the U.S. 8th Army.

During the Korean War, Kim served as head of the Human Intelligence Detachment (HID) and produced intelligence reports based on some 260 of his infiltrations and espionage operations.

Due to the secretive nature of his work, he briefed General MacArthur directly whenever he had critical intelligence about enemies, which he had gathered through his infiltrations and operations. MacArthur is known to have deeply trusted Kim and to have called him "this man" while pointing him out in a photo on his desk to check whether information had come from Kim.

In his memoir released in 2005, titled "This Man: Korean War Hero Kim Dong-seok," Kim shared a story of how General MacArthur's tough love trained him to work harder. Later in 1950, MacArthur chastened Kim for a lack of information about the Chinese forces' whereabouts, war tactics and operations and urged him to do something to gain such information, asking if he thinks he deserves the HID head title without having the capabilities to gather such information.

Kim and a few other HID members risked their lives by infiltrating the Chinese forces, capturing a Chinese military officer and interrogating him. This life-threatening mission enabled him to gather pieces of knowledge about the Chinese forces' war tactics. He briefed his findings to General MacArthur.

Many of his operations were classified. This is why his heroic actions were unknown or lesser known to the Korean public.

In 2000, Kim was named by the U.S. government as one of four Korean War heroes to mark the 50th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War. The three others were General MacArthur, General Paik Sun-yup and General Matthew Ridgway.