Chun Assails S. Koreans With Pro-Communist Ties

In a nationally televised Armed Forces Day address, President Chun Doo Hwan lashed out Thursday at “prominent citizens” who “take sides with clearly recognizable pro-Communist groups out of political expediency.”

The comment was widely taken as a veiled condemnation of Kim Dae Jung, adviser to the opposition Reunification Democratic Party, who wants to run in a direct presidential election to be held by Dec. 20 to pick Chun’s successor.

An ominous note was added by the setting for the speech, on television before an audience of 150,000 gathered to see a display of military power staged by 20,000 of the nation’s often politically minded armed forces in Yoido Plaza. Only last July, Chun’s army chief of staff warned that if Kim ran for president, “an unhappy event” could occur.

Kim, who is supported by many dissident groups branded as pro-Communist by the government, was sentenced to death on a charge of sedition by a martial-law court after Chun seized power in 1980. Only three months ago, he was pardoned as part of Chun’s promise to carry out democratic reforms in the wake of 18 days of street protests in June.

Kim made no comment about Chun’s remark.

Chun, who resigned as president of the ruling Democratic Justice Party in July to assume what he said would be a neutral role in pre-election politics, complained that “even some prominent citizens, who ought to take the lead in defending the cause of the republic, are being frivolously misled to take sides with clearly recognizable pro-Communist groups out of political expediency.”

The former general also bemoaned “those who purposely turn a closed eye to the existence of a real enemy” in Communist North Korea. They “must realize that the absolute majority of the people will never tolerate such attitudes,” he said.

One reason for the upsurge in leftist ideology, he said, was the continuing growth of the segment of South Korea’s 42 million people born in the years after Communist North Korean troops invaded the south in the 1950-53 Korean War. He did not mention it, but Koreans in their 20s and 30s, all born since the end of the war, account for 58% of those who will vote in the December presidential election.

Chun urged the armed forces to “enhance your sense of loyalty to the nation as well as your combat readiness so that you can faultlessly deal with any contingency.”

Meanwhile, Kim Young Sam, president of the leading opposition party, escalated his battle with Kim Dae Jung over who should run against Roh Tae Woo, Chun’s ruling party presidential nominee. He announced that he will begin his first speaking tour late next week to Pusan, Taegu, Chonju, Inchon, Chunchon and Kwangju.

“I have been refraining from touring provincial areas in the hopes of reaching an agreement on a single standard bearer for the opposition,” Kim said. “But I can’t defer action any longer.

Until Thursday, the party president had urged Kim Dae Jung in vain to follow his example in refraining from political tours.

Kim Dae Jung, who has staged four rallies, countered by announcing that he will hold rallies in Chonju and Songnam Oct. 10 and 11.

Fourteen members of factions supporting the two Kims in the opposition party announced that they are withdrawing their allegiance to their leaders. Eight of them were supporters of the party president and the other six backers of the party adviser.

“We are terminating our factional affiliation to push our effort for a single opposition presidential candidate more actively,” Rep. Kang Sam Jae, a spokesman for the 14, told reporters.

After promising repeatedly to agree on a single candidate, and then setting a deadline of the end of September for the decision, each of the two Kims demanded Tuesday that the other give up his presidential aspirations. The falling out raised fears that both would run, splitting the opposition vote and handing the election to Roh.