Democracy Uncertain, Kim Dae Jung Warns : Ruling Party Chief Visits Opposition

Ruling party Chairman Roh Tae Woo continued his newly assumed role on behalf of democracy Thursday, meeting one on one for the first time with top opposition leader Kim Young Sam, while his party aides discussed the release of more than 1,000 political prisoners and compensation that could heal the scars left by the 1980 Kwangju uprising.

Roh, a former general and the governing Democratic Justice Party’s nominee for president, met for 20 minutes with the man likely to head the ticket opposing him later this year in an election expected to be the first free and open presidential contest in 16 years.

Accompanied by 2 Aides

In his unexpected visit to the headquarters of Kim’s Reunification Democratic Party, Roh was accompanied by two aides and waited 10 minutes for Kim, who had to be fetched from his personal offices nearby.

“We could not meet thus far, for this or that reason,” Roh told Kim, according to a press account of their talk. “If we visit each other from now on, all the people will be delighted.”

Kim responded: “ . . . I’m glad to see you. You have made a good decision (by proposing political reforms). . . . But I hope you will bear in mind that a few people still don’t believe it 100%.”

The two leaders discussed Roh’s proposals for release of political prisoners, and Kim specifically repeated his demand that all of them be freed. They also agreed to work jointly for democracy.

The Justice Ministry has said that 1,100 people qualify for release as political prisoners, but the opposition asserts that as many as 3,000 are being held in prison cells where torture is believed to be commonplace.

The human rights commission of the Korean National Council of Churches lists the names of about 1,800 political prisoners, and a Western diplomat said that the issue could bog down in bureaucracy.

“We don’t really know what the government’s timetable is going to be” in freeing the prisoners, the diplomat said, requesting anonymity.

Releases May Start Soon

The Justice Ministry indicated Thursday that 100 of the inmates may be released as early as the weekend, but Kim Tae Ryong, an opposition spokesman, said Thursday, “The government must carry out a total release of political prisoners, total amnesty.”

According to the spokesman, Kim also called on Roh to implement democratic reforms as soon as possible. “Mr. Roh said yes,” the spokesman added.

During their talk--an event most South Koreans could not have imagined just a week ago when tear gas filled Seoul’s streets--the two men agreed to a formal meeting in the near future.

Senior Western diplomats said Thursday that Kim is the most likely figure to emerge as a consensus opposition candidate, adding that he would enjoy a slight edge in a two-candidate presidential contest against Roh.

“The die is really cast for the opposition for the most part,” one diplomat said. “Kim Young Sam has emerged as the party leader, and I think the party is pretty much behind Kim Young Sam.”

The diplomat reckoned that if the contest were held today, Kim would win by a 60-to-40 margin.

Kim’s main colleague in the opposition, Kim Dae Jung, is likely to decline to run, the diplomat added, citing the latter’s widely quoted statement last November that he would not be a candidate if the government agreed to direct presidential elections. The two Kims met Wednesday and agreed to field only one candidate.

‘They Could Blow It’

“In a sense, it is sort of the opposition’s election to lose, and they could blow it,” the diplomat said.

Direct popular election of the president was the centerpiece of major concessions offered to the opposition by Roh on Monday and accepted by President Chun Doo Hwan in a nationally televised speech Wednesday. Roh also offered to overhaul or abolish the nation’s oppressive press law and increase the government’s protection of human rights.

Sources in the ruling party were quoted by today’s Seoul newspapers as saying that the party is considering a “positive” measure to “heal the wounds” of the 1980 Kwangju uprising, during which the government says that 194 people were killed in demonstrations that turned into an insurrection that still stirs emotions among South Koreans. The opposition charges that more than 2,000 died in a massacre.

In his Monday speech, Roh called Kwangju an “unhappy incident that took place accidentally. . . . Without appropriate remedy to the bitter past, it will remain as a bone in the throat for a long time.”

Compensation Considered

The Korea Times quoted a ruling party source as saying the government is considering compensation for families of the victims. Other proposals discussed included the construction of a memorial for Kwangju’s dead, an official apology and restoration of the civil rights of all those who participated.

There was no suggestion in the reports that the government would conduct an investigation into the episode, in which Chun and Roh, both military leaders at the time, played major roles.

There was also no discussion of lifting restraints on the press, which Kim and other opposition leaders have said is vital to any serious government effort to bring democracy to South Korea.

Opposition spokesman Kim Tae Ryong reiterated earlier this week that discharged professors, journalists and students must be allowed to return to their institutions “without delay.”

Meanwhile, several indications that press freedom may be blossoming on its own showed up on the front pages of most Seoul newspapers Thursday.

In the Korean-language newspaper Joong-ang Ilbo, the father of a 23-year-old former college student, who had charged last year that she was sexually tortured by a police interrogator, told reporters, “I have no other hope but that my daughter’s struggle served . . . to develop the roots of democracy in this land.”

Was Labor Organizer

The young woman was arrested June 4, 1986, because she kept secret the fact that she had studied at Seoul National University while taking a factory job to organize workers. She is serving a jail sentence for violating labor laws on falsification of documents.

“I believe what my daughter did was a struggle to achieve basic rights for the workers,” the father was quoted as saying. “Atrocious torture should forever disappear from this land.”

The government-controlled Korea Herald reprinted in full an article from the Los Angeles Times that contained frequent references to military intervention in politics, a previously taboo subject here.

Before Roh’s speech Monday, such stories never appeared in South Korea’s controlled national press.

The opposition has proposed that talks with the ruling party on constitutional revision begin July 13, and there have already been unofficial contacts between the two parties to discuss a schedule for such talks.

Other issues on the agenda include a new election for the National Assembly and changing the way in which the legislature is elected.

Accord on Some Issues

“There seems to be agreement on some of the key issues, such as the length of the presidential term (four years),” a diplomat said. “But I think there’s a real concern that some of them could just get bogged down.”

The toughest issues for the ruling party, the diplomat added, include press freedom. “How far are they really willing to go?” he asked, adding, “I must say, I’m encouraged by what I’ve seen so far.”

Asked if he sees any hint that Chun and Roh are merely offering cosmetic changes to avoid more street violence and the possible loss of the 1988 Summer Olympic Games, the diplomat said, “The genie is out of the bottle, really. You can’t go back to the old ways of doing things.”

The diplomat conceded that suspicion remains high.

“There was so much mistrust built up over the years,” he said. “You’re not going to erase that suspicion in a day, a week or a month.”