Police Renew Attack on Protesters at Seoul Cathedral

After temporarily lifting a police cordon around the Myongdong Cathedral, South Korean riot police returned to the site today, firing tear gas to break up crowds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators outside.

The five-day cordon had been lifted without official explanation Sunday night, and protesting students were told they were free to leave. However, about 250 students, the remnants of a force that numbered 1,000 at its peak, remained inside the cathedral’s grounds early today, and most of them voted later in the morning to end their protest.

The students marched out about noon, but they returned to the cathedral compound shortly afterward and began a sit-in. When thousands of supporters gathered in the streets outside the cathedral, riot police who had been pulled back a few blocks Sunday night returned to the site, firing tear gas and scattering the crowd.

On Sunday, authorities had described the sit-in as “endangering the very basis of the state” and had indirectly threatened to impose martial law.

Father Francis Kim said government representatives had met church officials Sunday, informed them that police would be withdrawn and asked them to persuade the students to go home.

Beginning of Protest

The sit-in began spontaneously Wednesday as youths fled riot police attempting to suppress nationwide rallies protesting the torture death of a jailed Seoul National University student in January and the ruling Democratic Justice Party’s nomination Wednesday of its chairman, Roh Tae Woo, as its candidate to succeed President Chun Doo Hwan in this year’s presidential election.

The sit-in at the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church in South Korea drew support for the students from priests and nuns and inspired bands of other students to stage four consecutive days of protest demonstrations on the streets surrounding the cathedral. Volleys of pepper gas--a virulent form of tear gas--fired by police to disperse the demonstrators provoked widespread condemnation from merchants, shoppers, commuters and pedestrians.

Although he made no public comment and refrained from delivering a sermon Sunday, Cardinal Stephen Kim, whose residence is inside the cathedral compound, toured the area several times, chatting with students, nuns and priests.

Priests offered open support to the students Friday in an exchange for a pledge of nonviolence and urged police to let the students go. At that time, however, their plea was rejected.

Nuns Offer Support

On Friday night, after Information and Culture Minister Lee Woong Hee issued a bristling warning of stern punishment and fears grew that combat police would storm the cathedral, more than 500 nuns grouped themselves in front of the building where the students were staying to serve as human shields, according to Father John Daly, a Jesuit priest from Philo, Ill.

Sunday’s surprise withdrawal of the police, who had cordoned off the entire Myongdong section of downtown Seoul, came after worshipers attending Mass congregated in the street in front of the cathedral and chanted anti-government slogans.

That show of public support for the demonstrators was one of many similar manifestations since Wednesday, when demonstrations erupted in 21 cities and nearly 4,000 people were detained by police. Order was quickly restored throughout this capital of 10 million people, except for the Myongdong area and on university campuses.

Father Daly said that merchants in the area donated food and clothing to the students, while a band of 73 squatter families volunteered to do the students’ laundry and cook meals. Supplies and other material were passed over the wall, only 100 feet from a gate where police were posted. Students also passed in and out of the compound unfettered at that point, Daly added.

The squatter families, evicted by the government in one of more than 200 urban development projects around Seoul, were taken in by the cathedral in April, Daly said. The Jesuit priest, who has been working as a missionary in slum areas, has been living with the evicted squatters.

One group of riot police, Daly said, passed round “apple bombs” (tear-gas grenades) to the students in an expression of sympathy.

“They (the students in the cathedral) would have collapsed if they had not gotten that kind of response,” Daly said.

Sporadic Violence

No violence occurred at the church Sunday, but in the surrounding areas, bands of other students, for the fifth day, harassed police by staging sporadic demonstrations. Again, police responded by firing volleys of pepper gas.

Students interviewed inside the cathedral grounds during the night voiced no specific demands. Rather, one said that “we are laying everything on the line--including our lives--for freeing the political prisoners, a free press, direct election of the president and a new constitution.”

Others said they wanted to drive from power the military clique that rules South Korea. Both Chun and his anointed successor, Roh, are former army generals.

Asked if they supported Kim Young Sam, president of the Reunification Democratic Party, and Kim Dae Jung, a driving force behind the party, the students said they consider the two established opposition leaders to be “conservative.”

“We recognize them as leaders within the current political framework, but we are looking for a new framework, a new society,” one student said.

Daly predicted that the protest movement “isn’t going to stop,” whatever the outcome of the Myongdong sit-in.