Violence May Move Korea to ‘Extraordinary’ Actions

Prime Minister Lee Han Key said today that the government is ready to take “extraordinary” measures to stop street violence sweeping the nation as the first death from the anti-government protests was reported.

In the streets around a Seoul university, students and riot policemen flung themselves to the pavement in exhaustion, watching each other warily, after a fight that had lasted hours.

At least 35 policemen were injured when about 2,000 protesters overran their unit in the southern port of Pusan, stripped them of their weapons and equipment, and made a bonfire of the riot gear.

Lee’s warning was the first major government statement on the violence that began June 10 and has continued unabated in the capital and several other cities. Korean newspapers have speculated that President Chun Doo Hwan’s government is considering ruling by emergency decree or martial law to curtail the protests.

No Elaboration

“Should it become impossible to restore law and order . . . it would be inevitable for the government to make an extraordinary decision,” the prime minister said in a nationwide television address. He did not elaborate.

In violence that entered its 10th straight day today, one riot policeman was killed and three were hurt when a protester rammed a stolen bus into police in the central city of Taejon.

It was the first confirmed death since the violence began.

Yonhap, the Korean news agency, said a youth rammed the bus into a line of 300 riot police, hitting the four.

The agency did not say what happened to the youth driving the bus.

Student Brain Dead

A student hit by a tear gas canister last week remains hospitalized in Seoul, in a coma according to doctors but brain dead according to news reports.

Lee, who reports to Chun, urged Koreans to return to their homes, jobs and schools and end the disturbances. “I hope the public clearly realizes that if we should fail to overcome the present difficulty in a peaceful manner, the nation would plunge into a major crisis,” he said.

In Washington, President Reagan said he is concerned about the violence but declined to say what steps the Administration has taken to urge moderation by the Seoul government.

Neither Reagan nor his chief spokesman, Marlin Fitzwater, would confirm a report in today’s New York Times that the President had written Chun, urging him not to overreact to street demonstrations there and asking the South Korean leader to move toward establishing full democracy in his country.

‘We’re Very Concerned’

During an Oval Office picture-taking session, Reagan said that “obviously, we’re very concerned” about the situation in South Korea.

But he said, “I’m not going into any details on what we might have done and or not done.”

Fitzwater was asked whether the political situation in South Korea could be compared with that which existed in the Philippines in early 1986, just before President Ferdinand E. Marcos was ousted.

“We don’t see them as similar,” he replied.