Seoul Ruling Party Backs Leader’s Reform Proposals

South Korea’s ruling party today threw its weight behind party leader Roh Tae Woo’s bombshell proposal to meet the opposition’s political demands, including direct presidential elections.

In a caucus convened hours after Roh’s surprise morning announcement to the Democratic Justice Party executive council, the National Assembly legislators adopted a resolution of full support for the sweeping program for democratic reform and asked President Chun Doo Hwan to accept it.

Presidential spokesman Lee Jong Ryool said Chun is studying Roh’s demands and “will make a final decision soon.” Other aides said they expect Chun to accept within a day or two.

Opposition groups welcomed Roh’s package of proposed reforms and pushed for presidential elections by late October or early November instead of next February, when Chun was to leave office and Roh, his longtime ally, was presumably to succeed him.

“The new development will be recorded in history as a brilliant victory for the people who fought vigorously for democratization,” said the National Coalition for a Democratic Constitution, a new opposition alliance that sponsored the protests.

Kim Young Sam, president of the main opposition Reunification Democratic Party, urged revision of the constitution and electoral laws by September to clear the way for a direct presidential election.

In Washington, the White House called Roh’s proposals “very positive and forward-looking.”

Presidential spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said the offer of a direct presidential election “appears to be an encouraging step, and we certainly applaud the kind of dialogue that this approach promotes. We endorse any process that allows Koreans to work out their problems together on the road toward full-blown democracy.”

In a speech that took dissident and Establishment leaders by surprise, Roh early today embraced virtually every demand made by the opposition after 18 days of demonstrations and violent street protests.

Roh said he will resign his party post as well as his DJP candidacy if Chun rejects his package of proposals.

Roh, like Chun a former army general, called for a direct presidential election and declared support for other opposition demands such as press freedom, human rights guarantees and an end to strong central government controls.

He said he acted because of enormous public support for the anti-government protests that began June 10, the day a party convention endorsed Chun’s choice Roh as its candidate.

“The people are the masters of their country, and the people’s will must come before everything else,” Roh said.

In still another conciliatory move Roh later went to a Seoul hospital to visit a student who has been brain-dead since he was hit on the head by a tear gas canister during a demonstration June 9.