S. Korean Police Battle Students, Block Talks at DMZ on Unification

South Korean police blocked radical students from marching to the truce village of Panmunjom for reunification talks with their North Korean counterparts Friday and arrested at least 500 people in violent street battles that left more than 100 injured.

Many of the daylong clashes between police and students, trying to defy a ban on the march to Panmunjom at the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between the two Koreas, were over by early evening.

The protests came a day after more than 15,000 students rallied across the country, some violently, to demand that they be allowed to take part in the planned march Friday and meet with North Korean students to hold talks on reunifying the peninsula.

The two days of demonstrations, which had anti-U.S. overtones, were the worst anti-government protests since June, 1987, and prompted the ruling and opposition parties to call a special meeting next week to discuss the reunification issue.

Clashes erupted Friday when about 10,000 students tried to march out of Yonsei University before noon to begin the march to Panmunjom, 35 miles north of Seoul. They were turned back by a barrage of tear gas from a line of police outside the gate and responded by throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails.

Most of the street battles centered in Seoul, but violence also broke out in larger provincial cities as 20,000 dissident youths demonstrated on about 40 university campuses.

Police said at least 100 people were injured. By the end of the day, police said at least 500 students were detained, including 37 who were heading for the border and two university students driving a truck loaded with 1,500 firebombs to the Yonsei campus.

Police mobilized 60,000 officers--half the 120,000-strong force--at campuses, train and bus stations and at checkpoints along the road to the border to block the march and the proposed talks, which North Korea had approved.

North Korean students were showered with confetti, flowers and cheers as they left their capital for the talks, in contrast to the tear gas that stopped South Korean students, according to a North Korean television broadcast of the departure ceremony Thursday.

“The responsibility for the failure of the talks rests entirely with the U.S. imperialists and the South Korean rulers who do not like the meetings,” Ko Ung Sam, the north’s delegation chief, was quoted as saying by Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency.

Dissident students said they wanted to discuss with North Korean students a student sports exchange and the co-hosting of the Seoul Olympics by both Koreas.

But the South Korean government refused to authorize the march and talks, saying they would be used by North Korea for propaganda purposes. Government officials said negotiations on reunification with North Korea should be carried out through official channels.

Parliament to Hear Issue

The reunification question is expected to develop into a bigger national issue now that the political parties have agreed to raise it in Parliament.

The ruling Democratic Justice Party and three opposition parties led by Kim Dae Jung, Kim Young Sam and Kim Jong Pil decided to hold a top-level meeting Monday to discuss reunification.

In Washington, White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said the Reagan Administration is “hopeful” the Summer Olympics in September will take place peacefully despite the latest demonstrations.