Chun Seems to OK Constitutional Change in S. Korea

President Chun Doo Hwan said Wednesday, in a departure from previous statements, that he would conditionally agree to demands that South Korea’s constitution be changed before his term expires in 1988.

Chun said he would go along if the National Assembly agreed to draft constitutional changes and set a timetable for political reform.

The Korean leader spoke at a lunch he gave for leaders of three major parties at the Blue House presidential mansion. Attending were Roh Tae Woo, chairman of Chun’s governing Democratic Justice Party; Lee Min Woo, president of the main opposition New Korea Democratic Party, and Lee Man Sup, head of the splinter Korea National Party.

A presidential spokesman said Chun told Roh, his lieutenant, to meet with dissident Kim Young Sam. Kim, a former presidential candidate who was under house arrest for years, now serves as adviser to the New Korea Democratic Party. Previously, government party officials had shunned any contact with him.

Some opposition politicians said that Chun’s remarks about constitutional revision could be just conciliatory-sounding rhetoric, as his party holds a majority of 148 seats in the 276-member assembly.

The main demand by the opposition is for direct, popular presidential elections. It says that the present electoral college system favors the party in power.

Chun said he still personally believes that any constitutional change should wait until after 1988, but added “I have no intention to oppose” such a move if the National Assembly proposes it.

In addition to being a scheduled election year, 1988 is the year that Seoul will be host to the Summer Olympics. A large number of journalists will be here, and unusual attention to South Korea’s politics in likely.

Chun said that debate on constitutional revisions “could be allowed to any extent within the framework of law and order.” He asked, however, that the opposition refrain from an outdoor petition campaign. The main opposition party, supported by religious and civil rights activist groups, launched a petition campaign in mid-February supporting constitutional amendments.