The former North Korean commando, who took part in the failed mission in 1968 to assassinate the then-Korean president, died at the age of 82.
Kim Shin-jo, the only North Korean to be captured alive during the attack, famously admitted that he and his colleagues had come to “slash the throat” of South Korean authoritarian leader Park Jung-hee.
In his later life, Kim, who was forgiven by Seoul, reformed his status as a Christian pastor in the South.
According to Sungrak Church in Seoul, he died in nursing homes from old age.
In January 1968, Kim and 30 other North Korean soldiers were able to cross the critically militarized border between the two South Koreas before they reached the attack range of the Presidential Palace in the park.
All but the North Korean commanders were killed in a series of gun battles with South Korean forces over two weeks.
It was believed that one or two survivors had returned north, but Kim was the only person to surrender.
The assassination attempt occurred at the height of Cold War rivalry between the two countries about 15 years after they split into the South and North, supported by US-backed North at the end of the Korean War.
Following the bold North Korea attack, the Park government has introduced military training at schools and a residential ID system that is still in force today.
Kim claimed he was pardoned because he didn’t fire a bullet in the firefight.
After denying communism, the former Pyongyang soldier toured South Korea and gave speeches critical of northern life.
He later learned that his parents had been executed through North Korean exiles.
The former commander said the 1968 attack was ordered by Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of current North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
“I previously didn’t know why Kim Il Sung wanted to kill President Park,” Kim Shin-jo said in a 2009 interview with the Jung-Gan Il-bo newspaper.
“But I came to know why because I spent time here. Kim must have been afraid of poor countries like South Korea becoming rich.”
Kim was survived by his wife, son and daughter whom he met after resettling in Korea.
