Seoul Regime Warns of Action to Halt Protests

Prime Minister Lee Han Key warned his countrymen Friday night that the government is prepared to take “extraordinary” action if law and order are not restored in South Korea. He did not specify what steps might be taken or set a deadline.

“If we should fail to overcome the present difficulty in a peaceful manner, the nation would plunge into a major crisis, the consequences of which are hard to predict,” he declared as he concluded his six-minute statement on nationwide television.

Policeman Killed

Lee’s warning came as the Korean Broadcasting System reported the first fatality of the current rioting--a policeman run over by a bus commandeered by protesters in Taejon. Three other policemen were seriously injured in the bus incident involving “several thousands” of students, KBS said. Elsewhere, the day was comparatively calm.

Kim Young Sam, president of the opposition Reunification Democratic Party, said “enormous resistance from the people” will occur if the government resorts to emergency measures, including martial law.

Earlier Friday, U.S. Ambassador James R. Lilley delivered a letter from President Reagan to President Chun Doo Hwan. The American Embassy here confirmed the delivery but said only that Reagan sent the message in reply to a letter he received from Chun in early May.

Taken by Defense Chief

Chun’s letter to the President was delivered by Defense Minister Lee Ki Baek when he visited Washington for regular security consultations with the United States, which maintains more than 40,000 American troops here, the embassy said.

Neither the embassy nor South Korean officials would comment on the contents of Reagan’s message. It was believed to have contained an appeal for Chun to take steps toward full democracy and exercise restraint in dealing with disorders that broke out June 10.

The letter coincided with the first Reagan Administration criticism of the indirect election, involving an electoral college, under which Chun proposes to have his successor elected before he steps down next February.

William Clark, an acting assistant secretary of state, told a House subcommittee that the Administration agrees with a proposed resolution declaring that the electoral college vote for president, scheduled to take place at the end of this year, is “widely perceived in Korea as being undemocratic and susceptible to manipulation by the government.”

Clark also said, “Not only political stability but the security of Korea (against the Communist north) would be enhanced by a move toward a government more broadly based.”

Roh’s Nomination

The disturbances were triggered by the ruling party’s nomination June 10 of Roh Tae Woo, its chairman and Chun’s handpicked successor, to be its candidate in the scheduled indirect election for president. Chun took the step after ordering an end to debate over constitutional revision until after the 1988 Summer Olympic Games, which Seoul is scheduled to host.

Opponents of the military-backed regime demand that the constitution be revised to allow election of a president by direct popular ballot before Chun steps down.

Prime Minister Lee, in his message Friday, stressed that the government had reacted to what he called “disorderly demonstrations and mass riots . . . occurring in Seoul and other major cities” with “maximum patience and self-restraint.”

‘Extraordinary Decision’

“The government will adhere to this stance in the future,” he said. But, he warned, if order is not restored, it will have to make “an extraordinary decision.”

The prime minister said that turmoil “must be resolved through genuine political efforts under the principle of dialogue and compromise,” but he failed to offer any specific proposal.

Significantly, Lee admitted openly that radical students were not the only people responsible for the troubles since June 10.

He said that students “and citizens” who “have taken to the street must refrain from disorderly collective action and return to their homes and workplaces.”

Chun’s government, which has insisted that the radicals, who number no more than 10,000 nationwide, form the core of opposition to the regime, has been shaken by the appearance of many average, middle-class Koreans in crowds that swelled to the tens of thousands in both Seoul and Pusan on June 10 and again Thursday.

‘Dialogue and Compromise’

The prime minister also urged politicians to return to “the genuine political forum of dialogue and compromise,” and religious leaders to “return to their intrinsic mission of love and harmony.”

“My fellow countrymen,” he said, “I plead with you to actively cooperate in our difficult situation with reason and self-restraint.”

Lee’s statement came on a day of nearly complete quiet on the streets of Seoul. Clashes, however, occurred in Taejon, Kwangju, Sunchon, Chunchon, and in Pusan, the nation’s second largest city of 3.5 million.

And soon after Lee’s address, a policeman was reported killed in Taejon, 90 miles south of Seoul, when demonstrators plowed a hijacked commuter bus into a crowd of 300 riot police. A domestic news agency identified the victim as Park Tong Jin, 21.

Police said Friday that they detained 1,487 people throughout the nation Thursday, bringing to 9,578 the total detained since June 10. Only 245 have been formally charged.

621 Police Hurt

On Thursday alone, 621 riot policemen were injured, six police vehicles were burned, and 21 police substations were attacked throughout the country, the announcement said.

Police estimated that 73,500 people took part in street demonstrations, while 58,700 students demonstrated on 78 university campuses Thursday. The newspaper Joong-ang Ilbo reported, however, that more than 200,000 people poured into the streets in Seoul and 13 other cities Thursday.

Although police fired several canisters of pepper gas, a virulent form of tear gas, into the Myongdong section of downtown Seoul Friday night, the city center returned to its normal lively activity, filled with shoppers and young couples headed for nightspots.

A group of about 1,000 Catholics and other ordinary citizens, joined by only a smattering of students, sat down to stage a protest in the driveway of the Myongdong Catholic Cathedral but made no attempt to march into the street.

Professors Join Rally

At Korea University, an estimated 3,000 students burned a police vehicle at the main gate to the campus after 18 professors, in an unusual move, joined a student rally there.

Police deployed armored cars with multiple pepper-gas launchers to keep the students from marching out of the campus.

The 18 professors issued a statement declaring that “the government and the ruling party can no longer force their unilateral decision (to carry out the electoral college election) on the people.” They also displayed placards demanding that the government “comply with the people’s will” for a direct presidential election.

About 1,000 Seoul National University students took over the fifth floor of the school’s library Friday and unfurled banners reading “Kick out America!” and “Terminate the Dictatorial Regime!”

No Final Exams

The on-campus turmoil continued despite government-ordered closings of campuses designed to deny students a rallying ground. Through Friday, 50 of the country’s 103 universities and colleges had shut down for summer vacation without giving final examinations.

In Taegu, a professional baseball game was canceled because of fear that protesters might take stage a demonstration at the ballpark.

In Pusan, a port city 205 miles southeast of Seoul, the U.S. Consulate remained closed Friday for the third day as several thousand demonstrators, many of them carrying umbrellas in drizzling rain, renewed street confrontations with police in the afternoon.

Turmoil that began Thursday night in Pusan, the Joong-ang Ilbo reported, continued until 7 a.m. Friday--the first overnight protest reported in South Korea.

After midnight, protesters seized two trailer-trucks and a gasoline tank truck and formed a motorcade protest with about 200 taxis. Drivers yelled, “Let’s go to the City Hall!” the newspaper reported.

Protesters Turned Back

Police were forced to use riot-control vehicles to barricade the City Hall and fired volleys of pepper gas for more than an hour to disperse the attacking motorcade and other protesters on foot, the newspaper said. The motorcade got to within 2,000 feet of the building before police turned them back, it added.

About 10,000 others tried to attack the Korean Broadcasting System station in Pusan but were stopped by the police. Some of the crowds threw rocks at the Japanese Consulate there, breaking 42 windows, Joong-ang Ilbo reported.

Friday afternoon, Kim, the Reunification Democratic Party leader, rejected ruling party overtures for him to meet Roh. Instead, Kim demanded a meeting with President Chun.

Kim said a meeting with the ruling camp’s presidential nominee “would have little meaning at this moment.”

A spokesman for the ruling Democratic Justice Party immediately rejected Kim’s proposal for a meeting with Chun.