Thousands on S. Korea Campuses Back Sit-in, Clash With Police

Thousands of Korean youths supporting the student occupation of an American government library clashed with police at five Seoul universities Friday.

U.S. Ambassador Richard L. Walker urged the students in the library to leave with “quiet dignity.”

About 800 demonstrators at Yonsei University hurled rocks and gasoline-filled bottles at police, who tried to disperse them with tear gas. Witnesses reported similar demonstrations at Sungkyunkwan, Korea, Sogang and Seoul National universities.

The demonstrators chanted slogans in support of the fellow students who have barricaded themselves since Thursday inside the second-floor library of the U.S. Information Service facility in downtown Seoul.

About 70 South Korean university students occupied the library on the second floor of the four-story USIS building Thursday, denouncing their government and demanding a U.S. apology for its role in the Kwangju uprising, which began May 18, 1980, one day after the South Korean military issued an order extending martial law and cracking down on leading opposition figures.

It went on nine days before a full infantry division and a brigade of paratroopers put down the resistance by force. By official government figures, 191 people died in the clash, but human rights groups and dissident leaders contend that the toll was much higher.

The Kwangju issue has been one of the most sensitive facing the government of President Chun Doo Hwan, and the newly emerging opposition New Korea Democratic Party has made a new investigation into the incident one of its major demands in the current session of the National Assembly.

U.S. officials have denied responsibility for the deaths at Kwangju, but dissident and student leaders have claimed that the U.S. military, which has maintained operational control of the South Korean armed forces, approved the mobilization of troops for what they call the “Kwangju massacre.” The Americans maintain that the U.S. commander-in-chief at the time, Gen. John A. Wickham Jr., did not authorize the presence of the Korean paratroopers in Kwangju.

“We have reached a point where it is doubtful whether continuing your current actions can really contribute to the goals which you seek,” read a statement by Walker, which U.S. Embassy representatives delivered to the library occupants Friday night.

Activist students long have had a role in opposition against ruling authorities in Korea, going back centuries to the time of various dynasties. In more recent times, students often were in the forefront of the resistance to Japanese colonial rule from 1910 to 1945 and in 1960 sparked the movement that brought the downfall of President Syngman Rhee.

They have sought to maintain their tradition of opposition more recently under the governments of the late President Park Chung Hee and Chun but at times have run into firm measures by authorities.

During a debate Friday in the National Assembly, Prime Minister Lho Shin Yong charged the students with “abusing freedom” and seeking to divide the United States and South Korea. He warned that the government will “deal resolutely with those who try to solve problems, whatever they might be, through violence or group force.”

Lho said “only 70 or so” of 85,400 students enrolled in the five Seoul universities where demonstrations took place had joined in the occupation.