Kim Dae Jung to Visit Kwangju Cemetery : Opposition Chief to Honor 1980 Victims

Kim Dae Jung, one of South Korea’s two leading opposition figures, said Saturday that he will visit Kwangju soon to pay respects to the memory of that provincial capital’s citizens who died in a 1980 rebellion protesting his arrest and the coup that brought President Chun Doo Hwan, then an army general, to power.

Kim made the announcement after a breakfast meeting with his political ally and potential rival, Kim Young Sam, president of the opposition Reunification Democratic Party, which the two Kims formed last May 1.

Kim Dae Jung’s visit to the hotbed of anti-government sentiment, part of the Cholla region of South Korea from which he hails, would be the opposition leader’s first trip outside of Seoul as a free man since 1972. It also was expected to precipitate yet another public outpouring of resentment against Chun’s government.

Chun, meanwhile, was reported preparing to take three more steps to carry out promises he made earlier this month to implement full democracy here and to seek national reconciliation. They include reinstatement of suspended teachers and students, the halting of trials in progress against political protesters and the reshuffling of his Cabinet.

Abducted in Tokyo

When the late President Park Chung Hee assumed authoritarian powers in 1972, Kim Dae Jung was on a trip to Japan, and he remained there until South Korean agents abducted him in Tokyo and brought him forcibly back to South Korea in 1973. After that, Kim was subjected to years of oppression, jail terms, house arrests and, finally, a conviction on charges of masterminding the Kwangju rebellion that began the day after he was jailed.

By official count, 194 people in Kwangju were killed in demonstrations that became an open rebellion against the regime.

Chun commuted Kim’s death sentence to life imprisonment in exchange for an invitation from President Reagan to be the first foreign guest to visit the White House after Reagan’s inauguration in 1981. Later, the former general reduced Kim’s sentence to a 20-year term.

Only last Thursday did Kim regain his civil rights, when Chun gave him an amnesty.

Cemetery for Victims

Kim said that he planned to visit both Kwangju, capital of North Cholla province, and his hometown of Mokpo, in South Cholla, within the next two weeks. He said he wants to visit a cemetery where more than 100 people killed in the Kwangju uprising are buried.

“As a man who drew a death sentence for involvement in the incident, I want to pay a visit to the tombs before I join the party,” he said. “It is what the Kwangju people advise.”

Kim told reporters after his meeting with Kim Young Sam that he had agreed “in principle” to join the Reunification Democratic Party as an adviser after making his trip.

Kim Dae Jung’s plans stirred widespread speculation that the former presidential candidate, who lost to Park in 1971 in South Korea’s last direct presidential election, would use the trip to start preparations for a campaign for the presidency in direct popular elections that the government has pledged to hold by the end of this year.

Officials of the National Council of Churches, which represents more than a third of South Korea’s 10 million Christians, urged both Kims at the breakfast meeting to avoid running against each other for president and concentrate on achieving democratic reforms.

A race by both Kims as opposition candidates would boost the odds for victory by Roh Tae Woo, the ruling party’s chairman who already has been nominated as its candidate.

‘Maintaining Cooperation’

“We were never divided in the past, we are maintaining firm cooperation now, and we will never change in the future,” the two Kims told the church leaders.

Meanwhile, Kim Jong Pil, the No. 2 figure in the late President Park’s 18-year regime, declared in a speech that he might run in the presidential election, a move that could draw votes away from Roh.

“I am ready to receive the people’s judgment, a chance which was suspended in 1980, if a direct presidential election system is introduced,” Kim Jong Pil told a meeting in Sosan city.

Chun arrested Kim Jong Pil as well as both of the opposition Kims as part of his 1980 coup and banned all three from participating in politics. The bans against Kim Young Sam and Kim Jong Pil were lifted in 1985.

Following up on Chun’s release last week of 534 political prisoners and his restoration of civil rights to 2,335 people, the Education Ministry and the Seoul Board of Education said Saturday that 104 teachers in primary and secondary schools who have been dismissed for political activities since 1980 will be reinstated. Other teachers who were disciplined by being transferred to schools in remote areas and offshore islands will be allowed to return to schools where they taught previously, Korean newspapers reported.

Reinstatement of Students

The ministry also said that college students expelled for political activities will be reinstated when the fall semester begins.

District court judges met Saturday to complete plans to halt trials of about 350 of the estimated 400 people arrested during recent anti-government protests.

Chun also was reported planning another reshuffle of his Cabinet this week, the second in less than two months, to remove six ministers who are members of the Democratic Justice Party or to have some of them resign from the party. The move was planned to ensure impartiality of government.

On Friday, Chun resigned as president of the ruling party to supervise what he described as a peaceful transfer of power from a “supra-partisan viewpoint” when he steps down next Feb. 25.

A week ago, the two Kims had called for Chun to appoint a caretaker cabinet, including opposition members, to serve through the remaining seven months of his term.

Kin Dae Jung described Chun’s resignation from the No. 1 post in the ruling party as “a positive development.” But he added that Chun should turn down a post as “honorary president” that the party plans to offer him and resign from the party altogether.

Kim complained that Chun’s amnesty measures failed to cover “many non-Communists remaining in jail, who must be freed and pardoned, too.”