South Korean Dissident Kim Will Speak Here This Spring

South Korean political dissident Kim Dae Jung will speak at Harvard this spring. University officials confirmed this week. They added. however, that Kim's lecture does not indicate his acceptance of an offer to become a visiting scholar.

Kim, who was released from detention recently after spending most of the last 10 years in South Korean prisons, will speak on Korean politics in the past decade on March 10 at the Science Center. said Professor of Korean Studies Edward W. Wagner '45 in an interview this week.

But a source close to Kim said this week that the political dissident has "still not decided" whether to accept the University's long-standing offer to become a visiting scholar.

Two Invitations

Harvard has offered invitations to Kim twice in the past decade, the most recent offer coming in 1979. The source said in January that while the South Korean opposition leader is "definitely interested" in a position at the University. he is also considering a similar offer from Georgetown University.

Kim was unavailable for comment at his Alexandria. Va., home this week.

Wagner. who along with the Harvard Korean Colloquium invited Kim to lecture in Cambridge. said that although he has never mct Kim. "I gather that he feels rather strongly interested in being at Harvard some-where down the road."

But he added that the March speech and the offers for a visiting scholar position are "not really connected."

Kim was kidnapped from Japan by the South Korean Central Intelligence Agency in 1973, two years after an unsuccessful presidential campaign. After that election, he accused the victor. Park Chung Hee. of vote fraud, and was viewed as a threat to the increasingly authoritarian Park regime.

Released in 1979 after Park's assassination. Kim was imprisoned again in 1980 and given a death sentence. In January 1981 the death sentence was commuted.

He remained in prison until December, when Japan and the United States pressured the South Korean regime to release him.

Kim lives in Alexandria with his wife and two children. He is currently receiving outpatient medical care from Georgetown Medical Center.