S. Korean Police and Students Clash at Anti-Government Rally on Campus

Riot police swept onto a university campus Friday and fired tear gas to disperse an anti-government rally of about 600 students, witnesses reported. They said the youths fought back with rocks and firebombs.

About 900 police moved into Seoul National University, South Korea’s leading university, and dozens of protesters were arrested, the witnesses said. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

The newspaper Joong-Ang Ilbo said 132 students from other schools who tried to join the demonstration were stopped at the gate and taken away by police.

Student sources said that sporadic clashes continued on the campus for about 90 minutes and that protesters shouted anti-government slogans.

It was the first major campus protest against President Chun Doo Hwan’s government since the spring semester began early this month at South Korea’s 111 universities and colleges.

Ministers on Hunger Strike

Church officials said 40 Presbyterian ministers were completing the first week of a hunger strike Friday protesting the trial of a dissident clergyman on what they said were false charges and police use of force against his supporters.

The Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea, a national organization with headquarters in Seoul, said in a statement that the fast was being held at the Sungkwang church in the provincial capital of Chonju, 170 miles south of Seoul.

It said the fast began last Saturday when police fired tear gas and used force to disperse about 200 ministers and laymen who tried to enter a court where the Rev. Kang Hui Nam was being tried on charges of violating the National Security Law.

Officials of the church group said that up to 40 people were injured and that some were hospitalized.

They said the charges stemmed from a speech Kang, 67, delivered to college students last fall, in which he criticized the government and made remarks authorities say praised and encouraged Communist North Korea.

Ministers participating in the fast say the charges were fabricated, according to the statement.