A Korean general named Kang Moon Bang had an unexpected guest last week during a briefing session at ROK army HQ in Taegu: the top U.S. soldier in Korea, General Maxwell Taylor. As Kang Moon Bang talked on, a window at one side of the room slid open, and another unexpected guest popped into the room.
The newcomer waved a .45 service automatic and aimed it ominously at General Taylor, commander of all U.S. ground forces in the Far East. For a stupefied moment, nothing happened. Then a husky Korean general grabbed the uninvited guest in a hammer lock, while another Korean punched him in the jaw and a third pinned his arms to his side. As Korean sentries rushed into the room, Taylor calmly suggested that the briefing continue. In an embarrassed five minutes, the lecture was over. Before General Taylor left for Seoul, he ordered his public relations officers to say nothing about the incident. But the news leaked anyway.
Embarrassed Korean army officers identified the would-be assassin as Major Kim Ki Ok, 34, a wounded veteran of the early Korean war days, and said that he was mentally upset and perhaps insane. But President Syngman Rhee's nimble propaganda office saw an opportunity to make a little hay. "Major Kim had served in the front during the fighting and was sent to the rear with wounds," the government explained. "It is believed that the shock which came with his disappointment at the armistice and failure to achieve the unification of Korea affected his mind. He confessed that by threatening General Taylor he wanted to arouse public opinion of the U.S. to increase military aid to Korea ... He did not have any intention of hurting the general."
The army announced that it would court-martial Major Kim, but General Taylor made a personal appeal to Rhee, urging clemency.