RIVALS: Mr Park gave at least tacit approval to the kidnapping of Mr Kim (above) and may even have ordered it, says an official report.

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The secret operation to abduct Mr Kim had at least the tacit approval of then president Park Chung Hee, a fact-finding panel of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) said in a report that also covered several other historical issues.

The equivocation means the NIS does not rule out the possibility that the late Mr Park directly ordered the kidnapping of Mr Kim, his main political rival.

'This committee confirms that its precursor, the Korea Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA), undertook a kidnapping in Japan, and expresses deep regret over this,' the report said.

This is the first time that the South Korean government has acknowledged Mr Park's involvement in the kidnapping, although many South Koreans have believed he was behind it.

The fact-finding panel was set up in 2004 by President Roh Moo Hyun as part of an official drive to shed light on the spy agency, thought to have been used by former leaders for political purposes such as oppressing dissidents.

Two years after narrowly losing the 1971 presidential election to Mr Park, Mr Kim was abducted by South Korean agents in a Tokyo hotel. Mr Kim, then 47, was blindfolded and taken to Osaka where a group of agents put him on a boat and debated ways to sink it.

'As Kim Dae Jung's political standing rose dramatically in the aftermath of the presidential poll, Park started considering Kim as the most serious obstacle to his plan to extend his presidency,' the report said, noting that the abduction could have been meant as an assassination.

According to intelligence officials and Mr Kim himself, the US Central Intelligence Agency and Japanese officials learned of the plot. The United States is believed to have sent an aircraft to find the boat and buzz the kidnappers.

Mr Kim was later taken to South Korea and placed under house arrest. Mr Park's government denied its involvement in the incident.

Mr Kim said yesterday, via a spokesman, that he was disappointed Mr Park had not been directly implicated in the plot despite ample evidence. A panel of his associates called on the authorities in South Korea and Japan to apologise.

The NIS report said that the Japanese authorities also bore responsibility for the case by conspiring with the South Korean government in a cover-up. Japan yesterday rejected this claim.

Mr Kim was elected president in 1997, the first opposition leader to come to power. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for his drive to reconcile with North Korea.

REUTERS, ASSOCIATED PRESS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE