S. Korea Says It Will Punish Jailed Students

Prosecutors Friday promised punishment of nearly all the 1,200 students arrested when riot police stormed a university to end a four-day occupation protesting the government and U.S. troops in South Korea.

Seoul Police Chief Lee Young Chang said 82 people, including 42 students, were injured during a 1 1/2-hour air and ground assault and in battles with students occupying five buildings at Konkuk University.

After an ultimatum to surrender was ignored Friday morning, hundreds of riot police in combat gear, backed by two helicopters dropping tear gas and fire engines spraying water, charged the five building held by students.

Students burned furniture and threw rocks and firebombs before police regained control of the school, officials said. During the operation, 3,000 riot police blocked traffic and virtually sealed off the sprawling campus in the capital.

One student was in stable condition after emergency surgery for a brain injury suffered in the arrests, some students suffered burns in a fire in a university building and one student was grabbed moments before he tried to leap from the roof of a seven-story building.

Lee said 1,219 students were arrested, bringing to 1,476 the total number of students detained by police during the occupation that began Tuesday.

Government prosecutors said most students involved would be held for investigation.

“No students would go unpunished,” a prosecution spokesman said. “There will be few students who would be freed with only warnings or admonition.”

In Washington, the State Department declined to comment on the storming of the university, but said it regrets injuries on both sides.