Official vital to inter-Korean deal dies

SEOUL, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- Former South Korean intelligence official Lee Hu-rak, who helped broker a landmark inter-Korean deal, died Saturday at the age of 85, his family said.

While serving as the head of South Korea's Korea Central Intelligence Agency in 1972, Lee secretly met with then North Korean leader Kim Il-sung. That meeting in North Korea resulted in an inter-Korean agreement on reunification titled the July 4 South-North Joint Communique.

Lee served as South Korea's intelligence head under then President Park Chung-hee, who came to power through a 1961 coup.

While Lee was elected to Parliament in 1979, an ensuing scandal involving corruption allegations left him banned from all political activity.

Unidentified hospital officials said Lee, whose political ban was lifted in 1985, was admitted with an unspecified illness to a Seoul hospital in May, the Yonhap News Agency reported.

Yonhap said Lee, who died of age-related causes, is survived by a daughter and four sons.