Kim Jong-pil, founder of South Korea’s spy agency passes away

Kim Jong-pil (92), the founder of South Korea’s spy agency, has passed away in Seoul, South Korea on June 23, 2018. The spy agency is widely-known as the “perennial No. 2 man” in modern Korean politics. He also served as prime minister twice from 1971–1975 and from 1998–2000. A retired lieutenant colonel, Kim was a key member of a 1961 coup that put army, Maj. Gen. Park Chung-hee in power until his 1979 assassination. After Park seized power, Kim created and headed the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, a predecessor of the current National Intelligence Service.