The Daily - Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2018

Episode Date: January 16, 2018

As South Korea prepares to host the Winter Olympics, it has been eager to get the North to participate. What is Seoul afraid will happen if it won’t? And, for 38 minutes on Saturday morning, people in Hawaii believed that a missile was headed for the state. Guest: Susan Chira, a Times journalist who covered Asia in the 1980s, when South Korea hosted the Olympic Games for the first time; voice mail messages from people who received a false alert about an incoming missile attack in Hawaii. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. Today, South Korea has been eager to get North Korea's participation in the 2018 Winter Olympics. What are they afraid of if they don't? they don't. And the 38 minutes on Saturday morning when people in Hawaii believed a missile was headed for the state.

It's Tuesday, January 16th. The International Olympic Committee is meeting to unveil where the next 1988 Olympics will be held. And it's a big surprise. We will return to the city of Seoul. The 1988 Olympics will be held, and it's a big surprise. They're going to be held in Seoul. Susan Chira reported on the situation for The Times.

So I actually was a correspondent in Asia for The Times. I arrived in the 80s, and when I got to Seoul, it was palpable. The Seoul Olympics will be the biggest, the best games ever. Our facilities are almost complete, which have been tested, examined in the last Asian Games. People were really excited about it. Preparations and building had already started. And it was so clear how important the Olympics were to the people and the government. So we are ready to welcome the world to Seoul. The rebirth of Seoul is the story of man's enduring will to triumph in the face of the greatest adversity. South Korea is still a poor country emerging from the ashes of the Korean War.

Korea had historically been one country, but what happened was that as the Cold War intensified, the North allied itself with Russia and then later China and the South with the United States. The North Korean forces go on the defensive by launching a sudden unexpected invasion of South Korea. Tensions built and the North invaded the South and the country was destroyed. Families were separated. The United States sent troops. 50,000 Americans died, there were massacres. Many will not survive the forced winter marches to the prison compounds

north of Seoul. So it really was still recovering from the trauma, the poverty, and the emotional distress of the Korean War. A city which refuses to die. And this country sees the Olympics as its coming out party, its chance to show the world that it's modern, that it's capable of hosting, that it's ready to enter the world. We thought this could be an occasion by which the easing of the tensions in Korean peninsula can be made. So what's the state of relations between the South and the North as it's announced that South Korea will be hosting the 1988 Summer Olympics? The North is furious, insulted. Its pride is hurt. They see the South Koreans as this puppet regime. Why isn't the world recognizing our great socialist state and our superiority? And so there is an attempt between South and North Korea to see if there's some way to paper over this divide. Well, we sincerely hope the North Koreans will come to Seoul. But no matter what happens,

the entire world are looking forward to Seoul games. First, the North Koreans want to co-host. They say, we want to be a part of hosting it.

Yeah, they say, one Korea will co-host. South Korea is like, forget it. The co-hosting is absolutely out of question. It is against the charter of the IOC, against the president of more than 90 years of the IOC. And actually, it is impossible to co-host two cities at the same time from the point of view of logistics and administration.

Then South Korea sort of throws them a bone. We gave five sports to North Korea and asked them to accept it and participate in ADA Summer Olympics. And says, well, if you want to host some events like archery or women's volleyball or table tennis, North Korea's like, that's insulting. Forget it. Those are like Olympic scraps. They weren't the big boy sports.

However, as you would know, they have refused our proposal so far. The negotiations break down. They can't come to any face-saving agreement. And then the world starts to wonder, what will this intensely proud country, hermetically sealed in many ways from the rest of the world, this totalitarian state, what will it do now that its pride is so wounded, now that it's excluded? And so the United States intelligence agencies

decide they better look into this. How likely is it that North Korea is going to target the games? And the CIA issues an assessment saying Pyongyang appears set on attempting to ruin the games. So the U.S. government, which is, of course, deeply invested in this because it's going to be sending American athletes to the Seoul Games, it basically determines that there's a high risk that North Korea will attempt to not just disrupt the Games, but potentially to destroy the Games. Absolutely. This sense that North Korea was this unpredictable, angry country whose leadership didn't have restraint. A powerful bomb planted by North Korean spies went off in Myanmar, killing 17 South Korean government officials. For example, in 1983, the South Korean top leadership was visiting Rangoon, Burma.

The North planted a bomb that took out half the South Korean cabinet. Just killed them all in one fell swo took out half the South Korean cabinet. Just killed them all in one fell swoop. Half the top leadership gone. Wow. So what's it like in the lead up to these games? Because you're a reporter in South Korea at this time. Is there tension? And how present is this idea that North Korea might do something to the South? Oh, I think it's very much on the minds of South Koreans. They're very excited about the Olympics. You know, they're in feverish preparations,

building, security, you name it. South Koreans are really gearing up for this great, big, global party. They're now worried that North Korea is going to not just boycott the party, but actually actively bring trauma and terror to their very doorstep. People are braced like anything could happen. We'll be right back. So, tell us about November 29th, 1987. Everyone's been terrified. What will the North do? And now we have the answer.

Two North Korean agents leave Pyongyang. They're given two forged Japanese passports. They're going to pose as Japanese tourists. They buy tickets on Korean Airlines Flight 858, which is headed from Baghdad to Seoul with an interim stop in Abu Dhabi. They receive from two other intelligence agents what looks like a transistor radio. But inside the transistor radio is a bomb with a timer. So the two agents

get on the flight. They get to their seats 7B and 7C. They take the transistor radio. They put it in the overhead compartment. The plane lands in its interim stop, Abu Dhabi. The two agents leave the plane. The transistor radio stays in that overhead compartment, and the plane heads on to its ultimate destination, Seoul. And what happens to KL Flight 858? There are sound reasons to believe that KL Flight 858 was destroyed by a terrorist bombing. The absence of any kind of distress call and the paucity of wreckage are indicative of sudden explosion at high altitude. The most likely cause would be a bomb aboard the plane.

So while the plane is in midair, on its way to Seoul, a transistor radio, in the overhead bin, the bomb goes off. Rescue experts and officials from South African Airways are working together to investigate the worst accident in the airline's history, charting huge areas of ocean to try to ensure that the search is methodical and effective. The plane explodes. It's full of mostly South Koreans, many of them young people who had been working in the Mideast who are on their way home to see their families. Relatives of the 95 passengers and 20 crew began gathering at the airport as news of the disappearance spread. All but two on board were of Korean origin.

The Burmese Civil Aviation Authority said... Everyone on board dies, 115 people. Wow. Is it immediately understood that North Korea did this? North Korea is the obvious suspect. The Republic of Korea has produced evidence that KAL 858 was destroyed by an act of terrorism by North Korea. We demand North Korea to apologize, but also pledge not to repeat this kind of act in the future. But we don't really know for sure until you remember our North Korean spies who planted the bomb.

They had gotten off at Abu Dhabi and they're trying to escape. They get to Bahrain. At the airport, the authorities see that their passports are forged. And the two spies realize, uh-oh, the game is up. And so they are prepared for this moment. They have a potential escape route, which is suicide.

They have cigarettes with ampoules of cyanide in them. And so they decide they're going to bite down on the ampoules of cyanide hidden in their cigarettes. So the male agent dies. But the woman, who's a 25-year-old North Korean agent

named Kim Hyun-hee. She survives. She's interrogated by the South Koreans. She was sentenced to death. Why, Susan, is this how North Korea decides to attack, bringing down a flight? Why not do something at the games themselves? as this horrific terrorist attack is executed, and even as the whole international community is outraged, we also have what really is surprising. Both the United States and South Korea reach out to North Korea and try diplomatic overtures in advance of the Olympics. The Reagan administration basically makes overtures saying, if you show restraint and you leave the Olympics alone, we're willing to consider some modest diplomatic steps. And at

the same time, the newly elected president of South Korea reaches out to the North and offers to start talks. This is fascinating. North Korea, in blowing up a plane, in conducting an act of terror, starts to get the U.S. and South Korea to begin negotiations, provided that North Korea behave itself at the games. The fact is that it's only through threats,

either playing the nuclear card or playing the terrorist card, that North Korea has gotten the world's attention. And as we get closer to the Olympics, it's clear that the tension shifts to what will the North do? On a bright and beautiful Saturday morning in Seoul, Koreans, by the hundreds of thousands, have turned out to create a day they've long awaited. So what happens at the 1988 Olympic Games? It turns out it's a triumph.

There's no terrorism. The games go swimmingly. Demand for quiet from this great crowd of 80,000 people for the women's final of the 100 meters. I was there primarily if there was a terrorist attack, but I ended up going to many of the events, and one of the standouts for the U.S. was track. This is the one. This is what we've been waiting for. Hello, Joey. Smart move. Smart move. Here come the Soviets.

East Germany. ...try to go with Flojo, but no one can go with this girl. She's away and runs 10. It's gold for the USA. It's a world record for the American team. It was a very exciting Olympics. The South Koreans make their wonderful debut. The country's in ecstasy.

And for the Koreans themselves, their preparation and their hospitality South Koreans make their wonderful debut. The country's in ecstasy. And for the Koreans themselves, their preparation and their hospitality and their excellence of engineering these games, they deserve a 10. They certainly do, Dick. The hosts deserve that. So in the end, the Olympics go off without a hitch. And this terror attack on this airplane actually leads to increased communication and diplomacy with North Korea. I think you can say that after this horrible attack, instead of everybody turning their backs on North Korea, they renew attempts to get North Korea into dialogue. And for a time, tensions recede. The Americans and the South Koreans would say you don't want to reward bad behavior. But I'll tell you something. If you look at the history of North Korea, bad behavior is the

only bargaining chip they really have. And that's why we're in the position we're in now. Kim Jong-un's men walking towards their enemy across the most dangerous border in the world to a remarkable moment, a handshake with South Korean officials and with history. A meeting unthinkable weeks ago, hours of talks, and at the end, agreement. North Korea will send a large team to next month's Olympics in South Korea. The two sides have re-established a second... Susan, what do you make of this situation 30 years later as South Korea is once again preparing to host the Olympic Games? Do you think that the South Koreans are mindful of what happened in 1988?

why South Korea has been so eager to draw North Korea into the games, asking them, for example, to send a delegation despite the fact that their relationship with the North has arguably never been worse than in the last few years? So I think that South Koreans are highly aware of the history, the panic that gripped the country before the Olympics back in 88, and the fact that the Olympics ended up being used as a way to lessen tensions between North and South. At this very moment, the president of South Korea has reached out to North Korea. They've been very assiduous, and they've gotten the North Koreans to agree to send a delegation to the games as a kind of insurance policy.

I mean, are they really going to mount a terrorist attack or set off a nuclear weapon when their athletes are part of the games? So I think that we don't have the same atmosphere of fear that there'll be a terrorist attack, but we do have the same mounting hostility, worries about North Korean unpredictability, and the potential opportunity of lessening tensions and using the Olympics once more as a potential act of diplomacy. Finally, Susan, whatever happened to the North Korean spy who planted the bomb on the plane but survived, Kim Hyonhee? So this is a great tale. She was sentenced to death, but at the last minute, her death sentence is commuted because... She was pardoned, with the South Korean government deciding she was merely a brainwashed victim of the Kim cult. She ended up marrying the intelligence officer

who had been one of her interrogators. Today, she lives in South Korea at an undisclosed location. Now she's one of South Korea's very potent propaganda tools. In North Korea, I was taught that our leader, Kim Il-sung, was a god. You were taught to put him before your own parents. You learn from early childhood to say, thank you, great leader, for everything. And if you said the wrong thing, even if it was a slip of the tongue, you'd end up in the gulag. North Korea is not a state, it's a cult.

To this day, just as she's seen as a symbol in South Korea, she's hated in North Korea is not a state, it's a cult. To this day, just as she's seen as a symbol in South Korea, she's hated in North Korea. And in fact, she won't reveal where she lives because she's worried that North Korea will try to attack her or her family. I deserved the death penalty for what I did. But I believe my life was spared because I was the only witness to this terror perpetrated by North Korea. As the only witness, it is my destiny to testify about the truth. Susan, thank you. It's my pleasure, Michael. Here's what else you need to know today.

I think it happened at 8 a.m. in the morning. A little after 8. Just a little after 8. I was getting ready to go surfing with one of my friends, and from our bedroom, I heard Sarah say, Seth, do you have your phone? You need to see this. At approximately 8.07 on Saturday morning,

an alert was sent out to cell phones across Hawaii. Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill. I actually didn't know what I was supposed to do. I couldn't process what was happening. And then within a few minutes, I realized that I have nowhere to go. There is no such thing as shelter, seeking shelter. There's nowhere to go. There is no such thing as shelter, seeking shelter.

There's nowhere to go. This is an island. Where would I run? Where would I hide on an island? If the nuclear blast hit the island, everybody on the island will perish. So what can you do? I had to stop everything and gather up all my babies and race down the stairs. I instinctually knew that the phone lines were going to be clogged.

And I had less than two minutes to go touch with my parents and call them and tell them what the message said. And then I loved them. And then we were going downstairs. I told my friend that I didn't want radiation poisoning, I didn't want to be blown up, I wondered if it was real, I wondered if it was North Korea, and then I breathed, and I accepted it,

and I focused on trying to make it home to my parents. 38 minutes after the alert was sent out, the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency withdrew it. An employee starting his shift was supposed to be doing an internal test of an emergency missile warning system, a drill that the agency has been doing regularly for the past few months amid growing fears of an attack by North Korea. But the employee accidentally sent the message to the public. After learning it was a false alarm, my partner poured himself a whiskey. And then you went surfing and I went for a run.

And I went surfing and life carried on. That's it for The Daily. I'm Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow. Thank you.