Dissident Kim Takern Into Custody in Seoul

Ending a two-year exile in the United States, Kim Dae Jung, the last opposition candidate in a free and open presidential election in South Korea, returned here today and was immediately taken into custody at Kimpo Airport.

Hours after Kim landed, his wife, Lee Hee Ho, said in an interview with the Associated Press that her husband was “all right” and was resting at their home in Seoul.

South Korean government officials Monday had announced that Kim would not be jailed when he returned.

Kim, 61, and his wife were physically separated at the Seoul airport from a group of four Americans, including two congressmen, who had attempted to stay with the couple as they went through customs.

Other members in the 22-member American delegation that accompanied Kim from Washington in an attempt to ensure his safe return to Seoul were cordoned off by Korean plainclothesmen as they came off the plane.

Brutality Charged

The four Americans who reported they were physically accosted while being separated from Kim were Rep. Edward F. Feighan (D-Ohio), Rep. Thomas M. Foglietta (D-Pa.), Robert E. White, former U.S. ambassador to El Salvador, and Patricia Derian, former assistant secretary of state for human rights.

White said Korean police used “severe brutality” to separate Kim from the group and that police “tore me away and threw me to the ground.”

Derian said Kim was “battered and beaten up”and was shoved into an elevator. Derian said she was hit during the struggle. “It was thuggery at its height,” she said.

However, the Associated Press quoted Kim’s wife as saying that although her husband was forced into an elevator and bus, he was not beaten.

Foglietta said he and Feighan were “shoved, pushed and kicked and pulled away” from Kim.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police released a statement denying that anyone had been beaten.

“We . . . . merely separated Mr. Kim and his family from those accompanying them and escorted them to an elevator in order to ensure his safety,” the statement said. “No beating of Mr. Kim or any of the people accompanying him took place.”

In Washington, White House spokesman Mark Weinberg said: “We have reports, which although they indicate heavy security, do not indicate any violence.”

Barbara Webber, spokeswoman in Washington for the Center for Development Policy which sponsored the trip, said Kim was under house arrest. However, officials in Seoul did not confirm the report, and Kim’s wife said she did not know whether she and her husband would be allowed to move around freely.

Government security officials took them on a “strange route” to the family home, she said, and large numbers of police had sealed off access to the house.

Kim, during a stopover in Tokyo, had said he expected an airport welcome that “will show how strongly I am supported” by the South Korean people. The airport in Seoul, however, was surrounded by thousands of Korean policemen who kept Kim’s would-be welcomers out of the grounds. They also diverted traffic away from the main highway to the airport, which was lined by hundreds of persons who had come out to welcome Kim.

Hundreds of uniformed police were also stationed in the neighborhood around Kim’s home.

During the flight from Tokyo, Kim issued a copy of a statement he had hoped to make to his supporters at Kimpo airport.

Authoritarian Rule

In it, he said he regretted that “we could not be together with you in your suffering” under the authoritarian rule of President Chun Doo Hwan.

“That we could live in freedom and safety in America brought us no happiness. Rather, it intensified our longing to return.”

Kim also declared in the statement that “for the sake of both the people and the government, we earnestly hope to realize the restoration of democracy through an orderly process of dialogue.”

Must Act ‘With Prudence’

Earlier, in Tokyo, Kim also said he is prepared to “be moderate” if Chun, a former general, acts “with prudence.” He noted that he has proposed a four-person conference among Chun, himself, and two other purged political leaders of the 1961-1979 era of the assassinated President Park Chung Hee.

“If the government is willing to carry on a dialogue with North Korea, why shouldn’t it carry on a dialogue with South Koreans?” Kim asked at a news conference.

If Chun, as he claims, truly intends to allow an increasing degree of democracy in South Korea, “we will cooperate with him to ensure social stability and support the success of the North-South (Korea) dialogue and the 1988 Olympics,” Kim said. The next Summer Olympics are scheduled to be held in Seoul.

Kim, who ran for president in South Korea’s 1971 election, made it clear, however, that he will demand a restoration of democracy, including direct popular election of the next president in 1988, when Chun’s constitutionally limited seven-year term ends.

“Without a restoration of democracy, we can expect only another Chun Doo Hwan to emerge, even if Chun does step down (as promised),” Kim said.

Kim criticized the South Korean government for rounding up about 250 persons recently and accusing them of using “profanity” against Chun--by calling him a “dictator”--during the current campaign for next Tuesday’s National Assembly election. He also assailed the government for placing about 20 of his supporters under house arrest on the eve of his return to Seoul.

Lack of Confidence

“This clearly shows South Korea can hardly be called a democratic country. It also means that the government is not confident of doing well in the coming election,” he said.

Kim’s stopover in Japan held symbolic significance because it was the first time he had been in the country since he was kidnaped and abducted to Seoul by Korean CIA agents from a Tokyo hotel in August, 1973.

In a statement that he read in both Japanese and English at the beginning of his news conference, Kim declared that he was “greatly disappointed” that the Japanese government has refused to blame the Seoul government officially for his kidnaping, even while naming three South Korean officials as suspects in the incident.

He also said he had refused a request by Japanese police, who met him at Narita Airport on Thursday, to answer questions about the kidnaping, citing a “lack of sincerity” on the part of the Japanese government.

Since the kidnaping--which created a major uproar in Japan--Kim has been arrested and jailed four times and kept under house arrest for eight years. Chun jailed him in May, 1980, and accused him of sedition--a charge that the U.S. State Department described at the time as “far-fetched.”

Kim was sentenced to death, but his sentence was commuted to 20 years’ imprisonment by Chun, who allowed him to go to the United States, ostensibly for medical treatment, in December, 1982. Chun had Kim taken directly from jail to the airport and “suspended” the 17 1/2 years remaining on his jail term.

U.S. Campaign

With the help of a widespread public campaign by U.S. congressmen and behind-the-scenes action by the Reagan Administration to ensure his safety and freedom, Kim last Monday won a public assurance from the Chun government that he will not be jailed when he returned.

Initially, when Kim announced his plans to return to Seoul just before the National Assembly election, South Korean officials declared that he would be treated in accordance with normal legal procedure. That was generally taken to mean that the government planned to make him serve the balance of his jail sentence.

The announcement last Friday of a planned visit to the United States by Chun, however, appeared to be an indication of some success resulting from the Reagan Administration’s efforts to persuade the South Korean government not to jail Kim.

White House spokesman Larry Speakes, in announcing that Chun would visit Washington in April, added, “We are hopeful that Kim’s return to South Korea will be uneventful and unimpeded.”

Congressional Support

Kim himself had said that he no longer fears being jailed upon his return but said he might be placed under house arrest.

Before leaving Washington, Kim had secured moral support from more than 100 members of Congress, including House Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill (D-Mass.) and Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.).

Kim has compared himself and his opposition to authoritarian rule in South Korea to the late Benigno S. Aquino Jr., who was shot to death as he got off an airplane at Manila in August, 1983, after a three-year exile in the United States.