Massive Seoul Protest Decries Chun Regime

Riot police using multiple-round-launching tear gas vehicles today broke up the largest display ever of hatred and distrust against the government of President Chun Doo Hwan. The confrontation was capped by a four-hour seizure of Seoul’s City Hall Plaza.

Battles between militant students and officers, however, continued into the evening rush hour at three downtown locations.

Hundreds of thousands of South Koreans filled downtown streets and forced both City Hall and three nearby hotels to lower Korean flags to half-staff in mourning for a slain student. They also burned an American flag and called for an end to military rule.

Scale of U.S. Visits

During the lunch hour, the crowd in the plaza alone mushroomed to more than 50,000--equaling receptions that American presidents have received there--but only a few office workers went back to work at 1 p.m. The gathering finally broke up at 3 p.m., nearly four hours after the crowd began to accumulate.

Student leaders, who declared the plaza a “liberated zone,” shouted at the locked doors of City Hall. Police did not intervene until a band of students started marching toward the Blue House, the presidential residence. Tear gas attacks dispersed the crowd in the City Hall Plaza, but battles between students, armed with rocks and fire bombs, broke out at three locations. It was the first time since June 26 that police had used gas in the downtown area.

The outpouring of emotion ignored an announcement by the Chun government of its largest-ever amnesty.

Several students forced their way into the Seoul Plaza and President hotels, which face the plaza and lowered Korean flags on both buildings to half-staff as the crowd cheered lustily and applauded.

An American flag at the Plaza hotel was removed, taken into the square outside and burned--again to applause and cheers. Eight minutes later, students also removed a Japanese flag from the hotel and burned it.

Other students forced the nearby Koreana Hotel to lower its Korean flag to half-staff and removed American and British banners there.

A trading company employee who said he was in charge of exporting woolen sweaters to the United States said people dislike the U.S. government because they believe it supports military rule here for the sake of insuring stability.

“Military rule brings only surface stability, not real stability,” he said.

An American-educated Korean businessman said: “The most important thing for you to tell the United States is the feeling of the people here. It is tension--no, it is horror. We hate this government. We want to overthrow this government.”

Asked about Chun’s promises for democratic reforms, he said that “we will wait until February (when the ex-general will step down). This is just to show them how the people feel.”

Another businessman in his late 20s said of Chun’s promises: “We will have to watch carefully to see whether they are implemented.”

Later, students who erected a platform in front of City Hall, started calling on bystanders to join them in a march on the Blue House.

No Cars at All

At each of six streets which flow into the plaza, students stood holding anti-government banners. Traffic on all of the streets flowing into the plaza was halted, and on the main 12-lane thoroughfare leading to the old Capitol building, now a museum, there were no cars at all.

For the first time since Chun seized power in a 1980 coup, the police permitted a non-government procession to march to the heart of the city. Authorities reversed a ban on marching that they had imposed Wednesday and ordered police to withdraw to side streets.

The procession behind the van bearing the body of Lee Han Yol, a Yonsei University sophomore who died Sunday of head injuries from a police tear-gas canister. Today, the crowd swelled as it moved through the streets, with businessmen in expensive suits, women shoppers and other bystanders joining the ranks.

2,335 Granted Amnesty

The emotional outpouring came as Chun’s government announced an amnesty for 2,335 people after freeing another 357 political prisoners Wednesday. None of the 2,335 people granted amnesty are now in jail.

The amnesty, approved by Chun after a Cabinet meeting, came earlier than expected and appeared to be timed to coincide with the funeral and a 165-mile motorcade of mourning for Lee, 21. Lee’s death made him a martyr to opposition groups whose 18 days of demonstrations last month forced the authoritarian Chun to promise a transformation of South Korea into full democracy.

Lee was hit in the head by a police-fired tear-gas canister June 9 and died Sunday after remaining in a coma for 27 days.

Among those whose civil rights were restored was Kim Dae Jung, 63, a leader who has been vilified by South Korea’s politically sensitive armed forces but touted as a possible candidate for president in an election to be held by the end of the year.

“I did not commit anything to be pardoned for, and I cannot but have mixed feelings about this government move,” said Kim, who until recently was under house arrest.

“Even this unsatisfactory restoration of my rights is a result of the endeavors and sacrifices of our people, to whom I offer my unreserved gratitude, and I hope those still remaining behind bars will also be freed and pardoned.”

A crowd of about 30,000 worshipers including students, mothers of political prisoners, clergymen, professors and the entire National Assembly delegation of the opposition Reunification Democratic Party sat on the pavement and filled shrubbed hills on either side of Yonsei’s main roadway as last rites for Lee began with the sun rising over treetops at 7 a.m.

Crowd Spread to Tracks

Even a railway embankment on the opposite side of a major thoroughfare outside the university’s main gate was filled with a crowd that overflowed onto the tracks, forcing a train to stop.

Kim Young Sam, president of the opposition party, and Kim Dae Jung, his political ally, arrived separately but stood together near an altar surrounded by wreaths that was erected on the steps leading to the headquarters buildings of the university, which was founded by American missionaries. Lee’s coffin was covered with a large national flag.

His parents, who initially had objected to having the funeral turned into a ceremony of national scope, attended, along with the slain student’s three sisters and a brother.

Although speaker after speaker, in both eulogies and prayers, condemned Chun and his military-dominated government, the crowd remained reverent and joined in singing hymns and songs of protest. At times, it was so quiet a whisper could be overheard.

Mother Cries Out

Bae Eun Shim, the student’s mother, tried to deliver a speech, but after crying out, “Go away, you murderers! Go away, you murderous government!” she broke down in sobs, repeating the name of her son, “Han Yol! Han Yol!”

A wave of sobbing rolled through the crowd with her.

Kim Sung Jong, the mother of a Seoul National University student who burned himself to death in protest against military rule last year, offered a prayer in which she said: “We want to live in a country where there are no prisons for prisoners of conscience, where there are no more Park Chong Chuls, where there are no more Lee Han Yols. Please, God, help us topple this dictatorial government!”

Park Chong Chul was the student whose death during torture by police in January provided the spark to the rising opposition to the Chun regime that exploded in a conflagration last month.

Van Wrapped in Crepe

After the two-hour funeral, a procession led by two dozen students holding a 20-foot-wide South Korean flag and followed by a van wrapped in black crepe bearing the casket made its way to a nearby traffic circle, where a “farewell ceremony” was staged. Police stayed away, allowing the crowd to move forward on its own.

“You should realize this is working time. These people know their bosses are going to be mad at them,” one businessman in the crowd told a reporter.

Asked if people weren’t encouraged by a pledge by Roh Tae Woo, chairman of Chun’s ruling party, for sweeping democratic reforms, including implementation of a direct presidential election, the businessman replied:

“Nobody believes him. They (the government) have used tear gas on us since Roh made the promises.”

Motorcade to Kwangju

Lee’s body was to be taken in a motorcade to Kwangju, his hometown and the site of a 1980 uprising against Chun’s coup in which 194 people, by official count, were killed.

In addition to ceremonies planned tonight in Kwangju, the National Coalition for a Democratic Constitution said it will hold memorial services for Lee in 11 other cities, including Seoul.

Lee Woong Hee, minister of culture and information, meanwhile, said the sweeping amnesty was approved by Chun “to promote national reconciliation and unity.” He said it reflected “the mounting desires of the people for democratic development.”

The amnesty and restoration of civil rights, Lee said, will be effective at midnight tonight.

‘Hard Core’ Not Included

Specifically excluded, he said, were “the smallest possible number of hard-core members of pro-Communist organizations.” Students who set fire to a U.S. Information Agency office in Pusan, an incident in which one person was killed, also were excluded from the amnesty.

Lee said the special amnesty differed not only in size from 17 previous amnesties carried out by the Chun government but also in that the pardons were granted without requiring “repentance.”

The move, he said, “reflects the sincere intention of the government to cast off the legacy of the past and to achieve genuine democratic development on the basis of national reconciliation.”

He added that the government wants to dispel “all antagonism, confrontation, disbelief and conflict which have persisted so far in our society.”

The amnesty also will open the path for reinstatement of all college students expelled for anti-government activities since Chun took power, the Education Ministry said.

Through ceremonies planned here and in 11 other cities, organizers of the funeral clearly hoped to emphasize that it was Lee and students like him, their demonstrations evoking widespread middle-class support, who were responsible for the new promise of democracy, and not the government.

Government Seeks Credit

Since Roh, chairman of the ruling Democratic Justice Party, announced a sweeping democratization program June 29, approved by Chun two days later, the government has been trying to claim credit for the planned reforms, including a direct presidential election that would give the South Korean people the first chance they have had in 16 years to choose the nation’s leader.

Under the present constitution, which Roh and Chun agreed to revise, a successor to the former general was to have been selected in an indirect election that could be rigged to guarantee a government victory. Chun’s term ends next Feb. 24.

The prisoner release Wednesday added another government move toward democratization and, at least, partial fulfillment of opposition demands for release of all “prisoners of conscience.”

The freed prisoners were involved in major protests that have marked the last two years of Chun’s rule.

Particularly significant was the release of both the Rev. Moon Ik Hwan, 62, a major dissident leader, and Kwon In Suk, 23, a former university student who charged that she was sexually tortured by police.

Kwon was one of six former students who concealed their university backgrounds to take jobs at factories, where they were alleged to have encouraged workers to demand better pay and engage in anti-government activities. Under South Korean law, providing false information on applications for jobs is a criminal offense.

On Monday, the government released 177 people who had been arrested since the most recent street turmoil began June 10. Wednesday’s releases covered protesters and dissidents who were jailed in earlier incidents.

The Ministry of Justice today claimed that only 86 people convicted of crimes “involving the political situation” remain in prison after its release of the 534 prisoners Monday and Wednesday.

The opposition, which has demanded release of all political prisoners, however, has asserted that as many as 3,000 people were in jail on political charges. The Human Rights Commission of the National Council of Christian Churches had listed about 1,850 political prisoners.