Richard V. Allen, National Security Advisor to Reagan

In this episode of Korean Kontext, I have the opportunity to speak with Richard V. Allen, who, in the weeks preceding his official instatement as National Security Advisor to President-elect Ronald Reagan in 1981, was involved in a secret agreement to intervene on behalf of liberal political leader Kim Dae-jung, who had been sentenced to death by the then-Korean government under Chun Doo-hwan. The details of this story have only recently become known, even to Kim Dae-jung, who, nearly 20 years later, became the 15th president of South Korea.