U.S. Protests Attack on Kim During Seoul Homecoming : Korea Says it Didn’t Happen

The State Department today lodged a formal protest with the South Korean government over the mistreatment of returning exile Kim Dae Jung and four Americans, including two congressmen among a delegation that accompanied him.

One of the Americans, Carter Administration Assistant Secretary of State Patricia Derian, called the incident at Seoul’s Kimpo Airport “thuggery at its height.”

Kim, 59, who returned to Korea today after two years of U.S. exile, was forcibly separated from the Americans, roughed up in an elevator by the government security forces and later placed under house arrest.

“Police used violence against me. They pushed me. I felt as if I was beaten,” Kim said at a news conference at his home. He said that upon his return home a local police official “told me that I couldn’t go out. . . . I asked him if this was house arrest and he didn’t deny it.”

Seoul Denies Incident

The South Korean government issued a statement saying: “Since the alleged beating of Kim Dae Jung did not take place . . . it is regrettable that the U.S. side should demand . . . a full explanation.” But it promised an investigation.

Ed Djerejian, a deputy State Department spokesman, said in Washington that representatives of the U.S. Embassy in Seoul were prevented from receiving Kim and the 37-member delegation at the airport even though they had been told previously they could.

“Our embassy has protested,” Djerejian said. “We had hoped for a trouble-free return. . . . This obviously did not happen.”

Chun Visit Still On

But he also said the incident would not interrupt the planned visit of South Korean President Chun Doo Hwan to the United States in April. Chun, whose government once sentenced Kim to death, has been invited to meet President Reagan at the White House.

“We have received a promise of an investigation and assurances that the Korean government will assure the safety of the Americans,” Djerejian said.

He told reporters that several members of the delegation were “handled roughly,” including Derian; Robert E. White, former U.S. ambassador to El Salvador; Reps. Edward F. Feighan (D-Ohio) and Thomas M. Foglietta (D-Pa.) and “some reporters.”

Election Support Planned

Kim was returning to support a newly formed opposition party vying for seats in the National Assembly elections Tuesday although he is banned from direct participation in politics.

The Americans said they were forcibly separated from Kim and his wife after they got off the plane, and that they were roughed up by security forces.

Kim told reporters that he refused to enter an elevator with police, saying he wanted to go through regular entrance procedures. “They forcibly pushed me very violently,” he said.

Derian said Kim was “battered and beaten up. It was thuggery at its height.” He was “shoved into the elevator and getting punched the whole time,” she said.

Wife Denies Beating

However, Kim’s wife, Lee Hee Ho, said in a telephone interview that “there was no beating.” She said the couple were “shoved” into the elevator and later into a bus, and taken on a “strange route” home.

“The conduct of officials of the South Korean government today was inexcusable and unnecessary,” Feighan said.

“I personally observed security officers hitting Mr. Kim--unequivocally. There is no clearer way of saying it. The four of us were also physically abused--pushed, kicked and punched.”

White said he was thrown to the ground and Derian was repeatedly struck.

“We weren’t just manhandled. We weren’t just pushed,” said Derian, who said she was “covered with black and blue marks.”