South Korean Dissident Freed From House Arrest

Opposition leader Kim Dae Jung was freed early today from house arrest imposed on the eve of a national convention of his New Korea Democratic Party.

A spokesman for Kim said there was no formal notification from authorities, but a contingent of police guards placed around his residence was withdrawn shortly after midnight. Kim was put under arrest Wednesday.

Meanwhile, in a bold challenge to President Chun Doo Hwan, the New Korea Democratic Party named Kim and Kim Young Sam, another leading dissident, as permanent advisers to the party before it ended its two-day convention Friday.

The party was organized last January by followers of the two Kims, but both were unable to join because they are on a political blacklist drawn up by the government in 1980. The government abolished the blacklist March 6, making Kim Young Sam free to join the party. But he did not, saying he wanted to take common action with Kim Dae Jung, who is still under a suspended 20-year prison term for sedition and cannot engage in any political activity, according to the government.

He was convicted in 1980 of plotting an insurrection and was sentenced to death. The sentence was commuted to 20 years and then suspended in December, 1982, so he could go to the United States for medical treatment.

Kim returned home before the February elections and was held under house arrest until March 6.

His party scored a major surprise in the election, winning 102 seats in the 276-seat National Assembly and making it second only to Chun’s Democratic Justice Party, which controls 148 seats.

The New Korea Democratic Party convention adopted by acclamation a motion by Park Yong Man, the party’s central committee chairman, to name the two Kims permanent advisers to honor them as “our leaders for the sake of democratic development in the nation.”

Lee Min Woo, who was backed by both Kims, was reelected to a two-year term as party president Thursday.

The party convention was called to provide a permanent structure for the organization that began as an alliance of various political groups opposed to the Chun government.

Lee, 69, said the party’s first goal will be to amend the Korean constitution to allow direct presidential elections instead of the current electoral college.

The government has said it opposes any change in the constitution, which Chun proclaimed in 1980. Chun has taken a series of hard-line measures in recent weeks, including dismissing the justice minister and the president of Seoul National University because of student protests.

On Thursday, Chun dismissed moderates from two important party posts and replaced them with known hard-liners.