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The Koreagate scandal is largely remembered as a Congressional lobbying scheme. However, the South Korean attempts to lobby Congress ran parallel with a larger image management project that was also investigated by the US government in the 1970s. Congressional investigations at that time found that the Korean government sought to improve its image by interacting both with the US media and academia. In this regard, we have known since the 1970s that an image management campaign existed, but no scholarly attempt has been made to analyze the types of activities the Korean government engaged in and the degree to which they were successful. To conduct such an analysis, this article applies the theory of authoritarian image management to dissect the attempts of the South Korean government to develop a positive image of itself in the United States during the Yusin era. Using new documentation from the archives of the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as the original Congressional findings, it finds that the Korean government carried out both promotional and obstructive activities toward the US media and academia and also used South Korean honorary consuls in the United States in its image management campaign. The findings also suggest that despite well-developed plans, the South Korean government was not very successful in managing its image.
