U.S. Protests S. Korea Manhandling of Kim : Dissident Put Under Limited House Arrest

Opposition leader Kim Dae Jung remained under a limited form of house arrest Friday after his return from two years in exile, and controversy grew over the manhandling that he and the Americans accompanying him received at the hands of South Korean police at the airport.

The Americans criticized U.S. Ambassador Richard L. Walker for what one of them called his “unacceptably mild” reaction to the incident.

Robert E. White, a former U.S. ambassador to El Salvador and one of the 22 Americans who traveled with Kim from the United States, made the comment in an interview in reference to a note that Walker sent to the South Korean Foreign Ministry asking for an explanation of what had happened at Kimpo Airport.

Embassy spokesman David Fitzgerald characterized it as a “stern note,” And in Washington, the State Department issued what was described as a “very strong” statement criticizing the treatment of Kim on his arrival here.

‘Cavalier Attitude’

White said: “Our delegation is angry about the ambassador’s cavalier attitude toward this delegation. We were extremely disappointed in the ambassador’s attitude, which seemed to be to defend or explain away the indefensible attitude of the South Korean government.”

Rebecca Stone, an assistant to Rep. Edward F. Feighan (D-Ohio), said Feighan and Rep. Thomas M. Foglietta (D-Pa.) are drafting a letter of complaint to Secretary of State George P. Shultz. Both congressmen said they had been physically abused by plainclothesmen as they attempted to accompany Kim and his wife, Lee Hee Ho, through customs.

Walker met with the group for nearly two hours after the incident, and an embassy spokesman said charges made by members of the delegation would be “of serious concern, if they are true.”

The Seoul police issued a statement denying that either Kim or anyone accompanying him had been “beaten.” Police “merely separated Mr. Kim and his family from those accompanying them and escorted them to an elevator in order to ensure his (Kim’s) safety,” the statement said.

Accounts of eyewitnesses and the people involved varied as to whether any beating occurred. Most newsmen accompanying Kim had been forced to move ahead of the arriving group down escalators to the customs area on the second floor of the terminal and were unable to see the incident on the third floor.

Says Kim ‘Beaten Up’

Patricia Derian, who served as assistant secretary of state for human rights in the Jimmy Carter Administration, charged that Kim was “beaten up.” White also said Kim was “beaten.”

But Kim himself, at a press conference after he was allowed to go to his home, said, “I felt as if I was beaten but I’m not sure if I was beaten. The situation was so confused.” He said “violence” had been used on him. But Kim’s wife said flatly, “There was no beating.”

All accounts of the airport incident, except for the sketchy denial issued by Seoul police, agreed that plainclothesmen had used physical coercion to separate Kim and his wife from the Americans, who had traveled here from Washington with the couple in the hope of ensuring the Kims’ safety and freedom after arrival.

White said in the interview that the 22 Americans followed Kim and his wife off the plane, with White and Feighan closest to the Kims. As the line of people entered the terminal building, White said, “plainclothesmen hiding behind a curtain came out and pushed most of the people in the rear of the line up against the wall.”

The Kims, White and Feighan were led to an elevator, White said, and Kim asked the police to allow him to go through normal customs procedures.

‘They Grabbed Him’

“Then, all of a sudden, with no warning and no communication with us at all,” White said, “they ordered Kim to get into the elevator. They grabbed him. He resisted. Then they pushed him and struck him. . . . As they began to rough up Kim, five of the plainclothesmen pulled me away and slung me to the ground. Papers spilled out of my briefcase.”

White added that four plainclothesmen “grabbed (Rep. Feighan), one by each leg and each arm, and threw him back.”

The airport incident followed a massive police effort to defuse planned celebrations welcoming Kim home. Thousands of police cordoned off the airport and diverted traffic from the main highway leading to it in an effort to keep welcomers away. Nevertheless, thousands of Kim’s supporters gathered near the highway and riot police fired tear gas to disperse some of the crowds.

One hundred fifty police officers were sent to the home of Kim Young Sam, who headed the main opposition party when President Park Chung Hee was assassinated in 1979, to prevent him from going to the airport to greet Kim Dae Jung.

About 500 of Kim Dae Jung’s supporters did get to the parking area outside the airport and another 100 or so managed to get into the terminal building itself. Among them was Lee Min Woo, 70, president of the newly organized New Korea Democratic Party, which is putting up 93 candidates in the National Assembly election to be held Tuesday.

Lee, who was unable to meet Kim when he arrived, condemned police for obstructing a planned welcome by more than 20,000 of Kim’s supporters. Lee’s new party is made up of supporters of both Kim Dae Jung and Kim Young Sam. (The two Kims are not related; Kim is a common name in Korea.)

Banned From Politics

Both of the Kims, along with 12 other opposition politicians, are banned from participating in politics. In addition, Kim Dae Jung remains under the cloud of a 20-year prison sentence, which President Chun Doo Hwan “suspended” in December, 1982, to permit Kim to go to the United States, ostensibly for medical treatment.

Kim Dae Jung has served only 2 1/2 years of the sentence, which was imposed on charges of sedition that the State Department described in 1980 as “far-fetched.” Chun, then still an army general, arrested Kim Dae Jung and seized control of the government that year.

Chun’s government confirmed Friday that Kim would not be sent back to jail. However, the statement made clear for the first time that Chun is not willing to restore Kim’s civil rights. Kim, the statement said, “will be free to go about his daily activities but is banned from taking part in political activities.”

In a telephone conversation today, however, Kim said he had been informed by the local police chief that “I cannot go out at all.” Kim also said he had been told that except for relatives and foreign correspondents, he would be permitted to receive “no visitors at all.”

Kim, a devout Catholic, said he had not been told specifically that he would be forbidden to attend church services but said he thought the total ban on leaving his home includes going to church.

“All of my secretaries and bodyguards have been expelled from my home. I have all sorts of things to do, but no one here to help me,” Kim said.

Since a long series of troubles started for Kim in 1972--including his kidnaping and abduction from Tokyo in 1973, four arrests, and a death sentence--he has spent more than eight years under house arrest. During most of that time, he was not permitted to leave his home.