At the retrial hearing in the criminal case of the late former Director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency Kim Jae-gyu, who was executed over the Oct. 26 incident, singer Sim Soo-bong (70, legal name Sim Min-kyung), a witness who was at the scene at the time, has decided not to appear to testify. Prosecutors earlier asked the court to call Sim as a witness.
According to legal sources on the 26th, Sim had been named as a witness for Kim Jae-gyu's retrial hearing scheduled for 4 p.m. that day, but submitted a written statement explaining his absence to the Seoul High Court's Criminal Division 7 (Presiding Judge Lee Jae-kwon), which is handling the case.
At the Sept. 5 hearing, prosecutors said they would seek to call Sim as a witness, arguing that her testimony was needed to contest whether the murder charge against Kim Jae-gyu was established.
The reason, they said, is that Sim was a witness at the scene of the incident that occurred at the Gungjeong-dong safe house during the Oct. 26 incident in which former President Park Chung-hee was assassinated, and as a third party could testify objectively to what she saw and heard as is.
The court accepted the prosecution's request. The court sent a subpoena to Sim on the 23rd of last month. But Sim refused to appear, making it difficult to hear directly the situation she witnessed at the scene.
On Oct. 26, 1979, Kim Jae-gyu was arrested on charges of killing former President Park Chung-hee and former Presidential Security Service Chief Cha Ji-cheol and was indicted on charges of murder for the purpose of insurrection and attempted insurrection. He was sentenced to death in the first and second trials, and on May 20, 1980, the Supreme Court dismissed his appeal and finalized the death sentence. The execution was carried out four days after the ruling.
However, the bereaved family applied to the court for a retrial in May 2020, saying the arrest process, the trial, and the execution were all rushed, and in May this year the Supreme Court finalized the start of the retrial.
Earlier, in June last year, Sim appeared on a tvN program and said of the Oct. 26 incident, "How was it that I was in such a place, I went through many difficult situations and it was truly sad. They were very sad times."
Regarding the former president, Sim said, "He really liked my songs and treated me warmly, so as a person he was someone precious to me, and seeing him suffer like that, I was not in my right mind at the time." Because she was at the scene at the time of the incident, Sim was banned from broadcasts for four years.
Sim debuted with "That Man Back Then" at the 1978 College Music Festival and has since produced numerous hits, including "A Million Roses," "Men Are Ships, Women Are Harbors," and "I Only Know Love." Since last year, she has been holding a nationwide tour concert, "Flower Road," for more than 40 shows. The previous day (on the 25th), she performed at Mapo Art Center in Mapo District, Seoul, and on the 29th she will perform at Ilsong Art Hall at Hallym University in Chuncheon, Gangwon. Performances are scheduled through February next year in Daejeon and Suwon, Gyeonggi.