Chun Party Chief Agrees to Reforms : Roh Backs Korea Protest Demands, Including Direct Vote for President

Roh Tae Woo, chairman of South Korea’s embattled ruling party, this morning made a startling call for a series of political reforms that met the opposition’s key demands, including direct presidential elections.

“The people are the masters of this country,” Roh said, “and the people’s will comes before anything.”

In his surprise announcement to the ruling Democratic Justice Party’s executive council, Roh said that, among other reforms, he will urge President Chun Doo Hwan and the party to:

-- Revise the constitution to permit direct presidential elections before Chun leaves office next February.

-- Amend the election law to assure a free and fair campaign.

-- Restore civil rights to Kim Dae Jung, the opposition leader barred from political activity under a suspended jail sentence on a conviction of masterminding the 1980 Kwangju insurgency, and to others.

-- Release all political prisoners.

Threatens to Resign

Roh implied that the president had not yet approved his proposed reforms. “In the one chance in ten thousand that this is not accepted,” Roh said, “I intend to resign as presidential nominee (of his party), as party chairman and from all other public positions.”

On Wednesday, Chun told Kim Young Sam, president of the main opposition Reunification Democratic Party, that he had entrusted to Roh the power to make all decisions concerning political reforms in negotiations with the opposition.

A Western diplomat, apprised of the news, said he was shocked. “I did not think they would give away the whole ballgame,” he said.

Asked whether he believes that the reforms that Roh outlined would be implemented, he said: “When you drop a bombshell, it’s hard to retreat. . . . I don’t see how it’s possible for the government to go back on this. Now they’re down on the record.”

But, he added, “Let’s see if any caveats pop up.”

Roh’s proposals, which he said would be enacted through consultations between the ruling party and the opposition, followed nearly three weeks of political turmoil here, with opposition-supported street demonstrators demanding democratization and an end to rule by Chun’s military-dominated government.

‘A Great Change’

Kim Young Sam and Kim Dae Jung heard the news of Roh’s announcement during a private breakfast meeting. Later, Kim Dae Jung called the proposals “a great change and a total departure.”

“Everybody is surprised,” exclaimed Park Chong Ung, a secretary to Kim Young Sam, at the opposition party headquarters, where the party’s executive committee held a brief meeting to discuss the news. Kim told the committee, “It’s the start of a democratic victory,” Park related.

Moments later, Kim emerged from an inner office, a small smile on his face. He told a group of waiting reporters:

“It’s a bit late but I’m glad he announced the proposals to Chun Doo Hwan. I’d like to see the constitutional change, a National Assembly law, freedom of the press and all related laws changed by September. Also, they must release all political prisoners and restore political rights. There should also be a National Assembly election by the end of October or early November, before it gets too cold.”

He said the presidential election should be held concurrently with a National Assembly election.

“We should have a peaceful transfer of power under a new form of government by next February, when Chun Doo Hwan steps down,” Kim declared. And, he added, “I would like to see the Olympic Games successfully carried out” under a new government in the fall of next year.

Despite Kim’s optimism, Roh’s startling reform proposal is expected to boost support for the ruling party in a presidential election.

‘Deeply Troubled’

In making his announcement, which hit the streets in newspaper extras and touched off widespread speculation in all quarters, Roh clearly realized the drama of the moment. He described himself as “deeply troubled and continuously disturbed” at what he called a “national crisis shown by the deep-rooted conflict among the people.”

Roh repeatedly stressed his loyalty to the government, and said: “I stand before history and the people with the firm determination to build a country with a government that will be able to earn the wisdom and courage of its people, people who love each other and unite and are proud of being citizens of this country.”

Roh said he “had no choice but to accept a direct presidential system to overcome social unrest and to achieve national unity.”

He added that constitutional amendments must also provide for the “freedom to run for office and fair competition so that (an election) can receive the pure judgment of the people. . . . With that thought in mind, I believe that regardless of what happened in the past with Kim Dae Jung, his civil rights must be restored.”

In calling for the release of all political prisoners “except a few who violated the basic order of our country,” Roh said that “human dignity must be even more highly respected.”

Kim Young Sam has estimated the number of political prisoners at more than 3,000. The Human Rights Committee of the Korea National Council of Churches puts the number at slightly more than 1,800.

Roh said he hopes the “next presidential election will grow into a people’s celebration and a new government with a solid popular foundation will be able to build an even greater nation.”

Finally, Roh said, “With only a short time left before the Olympics, with a division in national opinion at this time, all of us share a responsibility to avoid national humiliation.”

Middle-Class Backing

Pressure for reforms within the ruling party mounted as student demonstrations drew growing support from the middle class. The diplomat suggested that a key factor in the pressure was the reluctance of the military to step in. “The army does not want to intervene and stop it (the demonstrations).”

Roh’s proposals, if implemented, are expected to end the street violence that has racked Seoul and at least 32 other South Korean cities since June 10, the day that Roh was nominated by the ruling party to succeed Chun under the present constitution.

“The demonstrators are there to bend the government to the people’s will, and when you bow to the people’s will, that takes the wind out of it,” the diplomat said. “This will definitely break the (anti-government) alliances. The radical students will definitely be isolated by this.”

The other reforms Roh proposed in an eight-point program included an overhaul of the country’s restrictive press law, granting local governments and campuses more independence and decision-making power and increased protection for human rights and promotion of social welfare.

Roh set no particular timetable for political consultations on the reform package. His announcement was the first word of the proposed changes, but the government had been expected to make a major political announcement sometime this week.

Last week, Chun had met with a variety of opposition and religious leaders, including Kim Young Sam and Cardinal Stephen Kim, prelate of South Korea’s 2 million Roman Catholics and an influential voice here.

Cardinal Urged Reforms

Referring to the meeting between the president and cardinal, the diplomat said, “The cardinal is a definite bellwether of overwhelming popular sentiment.” In their meeting, the cardinal called for direct presidential elections.

Roh told the ruling party’s executive council that he still believed that a parliamentary system, which Chun’s group had insisted upon until today, was preferable to a presidential form of government with direct elections.

But, he said, “However good the system might be, if it is not accepted by the majority of the people, the system would be isolated from them, and a government formed under such a system could not share the dreams and the sufferings of the people.”

Roh, 54, an ex-general who helped put Chun in power in a 1980 coup, has been described as a moderate by ruling party officials. But both Korean and foreign analysts could cite no record of liberalism in Roh’s actions since he resigned from the army in 1981 as a four-star general and served in a series of political posts, as well as heading the Seoul Olympics Organizing Committee for three years.

Not once has President Chun hinted that he might accept the opposition’s demand for a direct presidential election. Most analysts agreed that the ruling party had opposed that demand because of a conviction that it could not win such an election and described the ruling group as firmly committed to retaining power.

Surprise Move

Roh’s declaration that the party was willing to restore the civil rights of Kim Dae Jung was even more astonishing.

Kim, the opposition’s last candidate in a free and open presidential election, that coming in 1971, was arrested by Chun as he carried out his May, 1980, coup. Subsequently, when demonstrations against the coup that broke out in Kwangju turned into an insurrection, Chun brought what the U.S. State Department at the time called “far-fetched” charges against Kim, accusing him of plotting the insurrection in which 194 people, by official count, were killed.

Convicted and sentenced to death, Kim’s life was spared only by the intervention of the United States. American diplomats worked out an arrangement by which President Reagan extended an invitation to Chun to visit the White House in January, 1981, immediately after Reagan’s inaugural, in exchange for Chun’s reducing Kim’s sentence to life imprisonment. Later, the sentence was reduced to 20 years in jail.

Korean analysts and American diplomats alike had predicted that the military, which one official said “loathed” Kim Dae Jung, would do virtually anything to prevent him from running as a candidate for president.

In a continuation of public pressure on the authorities Sunday, the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church here had called on its faithful to help the drive for democracy by taking part in the kind of “People Power” movement that drove former Philippines President Ferdinand E. Marcos into exile last year.

In its strongest statement to date against Chun’s military-dominated administration, the leadership of the traditionally conservative Korean church declared in its weekly newsletter, “As it was in the Philippines, we know that ultimately, democracy in Korea must be achieved by the power of the Korean people.”

Distributed at Masses

The newsletter was distributed to thousands of Catholics attending a series of hourly Masses on Sunday throughout the capital, the first peaceful day on the streets since police blanketed more than three square miles of the downtown area with tear gas to quell student-led demonstrations for democracy on Friday.

As church workers in Seoul distributed the newsletter, many worshipers dabbed tears from their eyes and breathed through handkerchiefs because residue from the gas still lingered 36 hours after the violence.

In a statement, the church leadership drew an analogy to the church-backed, civil-military uprising in the Philippines that toppled Marcos in February, 1986.

“We looked with much shame at churches that contributed to the democracy in the Philippines,” the statement said. “They (the Philippine Church) looked so heroic, and we looked so small.”

Only 2 Million Catholics

That observation is statistically true. Only 2 million of Korea’s more than 40 million people are Roman Catholics, whereas in the Philippines, at least 85% of the population is Catholic, and the church wields considerable power in the remote provinces.

But political analysts in Seoul say that declarations by the Korean church have a political impact beyond its membership, and they are seen as a barometer of middle-class sentiment, which in the past has been much more apathetic than it has been in recent months.

The church’s Sunday statement was the latest in a series of events that indicated growing activism by the Korean church in this country’s tense political situation.

Cardinal Kim, Korea’s Catholic primate who is visiting Japan at present, has personally spoken with an increasingly anti-government tone in recent months.

Warning to Chun

During his meeting with President Chun last Thursday, the cardinal said, “I hope you will make a courageous decision to democratize the country,” and he later cautioned the president on the heavy use of tear gas by police.

“I wonder if a tear gas that causes tears to flow but that does no harm to the human body can be invented,” he said, according to a government summary of his meeting with Chun.

One foreign diplomat described the prelate as “one of the few public figures with credibility in this country. He has a certain moral perspective.”

The diplomat said that the Catholic Church was “quite instrumental” in the formation of the National Coalition for a Democratic Constitution, an alliance of religious and human rights organizations that sponsored two of the biggest recent demonstrations. The alliance also includes the main opposition Reunification Democratic Party.

In addition, Myongdong Cathedral here in Seoul was the site of the lengthiest demonstration of the current turmoil, a six-day student occupation of the cathedral compound beginning June 10.

Times staff writer Sam Jameson contributed to this story.