Will End U.S. Library Sit-in, Seoul Students Say

Militant South Korean students said today they will end their four-day occupation of the U.S. Information Service building in downtown Seoul, a sit-in staged to protest American support of the South Korean government.

The students put up a poster in a second-floor window of the building, where they had holed up in a library since noon Thursday. The poster said the students would issue a statement later and then leave the building. The students told reporters they would end the protest at noon today.

Confirmation that this was the plan was not available from U.S. Embassy officials or other sources. American officials have been talking on and off with the estimated 70 students since the protest began.

The protesters ended their hunger strike Saturday, accepting food from both dissident groups and the U.S. Embassy. An embassy official said sandwiches, vegetables and milk were sent in and the students “wolfed it down.”

At 4:30 a.m., an ambulance arrived at the building and a young woman was carried out on a stretcher and taken to a hospital. Witnesses said she was suffering from exhaustion. About 20 women are in the student group.

Like other recent student demonstrations, the protest centered on the fifth anniversary of a May 18, 1980, uprising in the southern city of Kwangju. The rebellion began soon after the government declared martial law, and was put down by troops after nine days. By official count, 191 people were killed. Dissidents put the toll much higher and made the crackdown a major issue in their opposition to President Chun Doo Hwan’s government.

The students in the library said the United States condoned, or did not try to stop the sending of troops into Kwangju and demanded an American apology. U.S. officials say there was no U.S. involvement.