Dissident Sees ‘Dangers’ in Return to Seoul

Saying “I do not know my fate tomorrow,” South Korean opposition leader Kim Dae Jung warned today of possible anti-government disturbances if the government tries to put him under house arrest upon his return to Seoul.

“Dangers await me,” said Kim, who leaves for South Korea on Wednesday, concluding two years of exile in the United States. He said he has been told he won’t be jailed, but thinks there is a “strong possibility” he will be placed under house arrest.

“I think if they put me under house arrest, there will be some protest from our people,” Kim told a news conference. He is scheduled to arrive in Seoul on Friday after an overnight stop in Tokyo.

He didn’t suggest that he would encourage protests, but declared that he would consider house arrest “not acceptable.”

And he said that if the Korean government “is moderate” toward him when he returns, “I will also be very moderate so that my return will not result in creating any instability.”

The South Korean government has said it won’t put Kim in jail but has not ruled out house arrest. There is still a 17 1/2-year prison sentence hanging over Kim’s head, the result of charges brought against him after 1980 anti-government riots.

“No one can know his future, but he can know what is best for him to do,” said Kim. “Thus, I do not know my fate tomorrow; I only wish to do my best at this present moment.”

Kim, 59, was sentenced to death by the government of President Chun Doo Hwan, but the sentence was commuted to 20 years in prison.