S. Korea Police Crush Opposition Rally; 1,000 Detained

Thousands of riot police crushed an attempt by the opposition to hold a major rally in Seoul on Saturday, firing tear gas, detaining more than 1,000 people and placing 70 dissidents under house arrest.

Calling the action “humiliating,” the major opposition group calling for a constitutional amendment for direct presidential elections said it might give up compromise efforts and seek to topple the government of President Chun Doo Hwan.

“If the government pursues its plan to prolong its dictatorial rule, we will not hesitate to give up democratization efforts through dialogue and compromise and will fight to topple the regime itself,” said Lee Min Woo, president of the New Korea Democratic Party.

A ‘Humiliating’ Day

“Today will be recorded as one of the most humiliating days in our constitutional history,” Lee said of the foiled rally, which the government had declared illegal and which police ended by firing tear gas and making arrests wherever people gathered across Seoul.

Local reports, quoting police sources, said at least 1,065 people were detained. Seventy politicians, including the nation’s two best-known dissidents, Kim Young Sam and Kim Dae Jung, were put under temporary house arrest, the reports said.

Police sources said the house arrest of 70 dissidents, including 55 students, was a temporary crackdown to prevent the rally. The sources also said nearly all Seoul district offices of the opposition were ransacked.

At least two opposition lawmakers were slightly injured in clashes with police.

70,000 Police Mobilized

Government sources said 70,000 riot police were mobilized to block the rally in central Seoul, called to protest the system of electing a president through an electoral college.

The opposition complains that the electoral college system now in effect favors the party in power. The government wants a parliamentary form of government headed by a powerful prime minister under a figurehead president.

About 20 minutes before the rally, helmeted riot police, armed with gas masks and shields, began firing tear gas to break up the gathering crowds, witnesses said.

Dispersed Voluntarily

People did not fight back and dispersed voluntarily but gathered again at different places, witnesses said.

No crowd estimate was immediately possible, but demonstration organizers had planned to mobilize 1 million people for the rally.

The government had outlawed the rally and imposed a massive crackdown on the dissident movement, saying it feared that the demonstration would turn violent.

Renews Referendum Proposal

Lee said his party called the Seoul rally to “let the government witness itself where the wishes of our people lie and what our people want.”

He also renewed a proposal that the Chun government hold a national referendum to let the people choose the form of government that is to succeed Chun, scheduled to step down in 1988.

Lee told reporters that key officials of his New Korea Democratic Party and opposition legislators will conduct a protest sit-in at party headquarters today.

If repression continues, Lee said, the party “will not hesitate to go all-out for a campaign to overthrow the government. . . . “

“The people will also lose their patience and come forward to demand that we opt for a more decisive method . . . if all these good intentions continue to be trampled on as was today’s rally,” he said.