On October 26, 1979, Pak was gunned down by Kim Jae-kyu, the director of the KCIA. Kim claimed that Pak was an obstacle to democracy and that his act was one of patriotism. After Kim shot the president to death and the leader of his guards, his agents quickly killed four more of the presidential bodyguards before the group was apprehended. The entire episode is usually either considered a spontaneous act of passion by an individual and that the actions of the other agents only occurred because the men felt loyalty to Kim and naturally followed his lead, or as part of a pre-arranged attempted coup by the intelligence service, , with the latter being more widely believed.