South Korea Frees 46 Political Prisoners

The South Korean government, bowing to domestic and international criticism, today released a new group of political prisoners, including the recipient of a prestigious human rights award.

At the same time, President Roh Tae Woo warned against the “destructive activities” of dissidents--an apparent reference to a wave of student violence earlier this month--and said any attempt to disrupt the Summer Olympic Games in Seoul in September “must be squashed.”

The display of both conciliation and toughness came a year after Roh, then chairman of the ruling Democratic Justice Party, declared sweeping democratic reforms and derailed a popular uprising against the authoritarian rule of his predecessor, Chun Doo Hwan.

In the third amnesty since Roh became president in February, 46 prisoners of conscience were paroled along with 453 ordinary inmates. Most prominent among those released is Kim Keun Tae, an alleged victim of police torture who received the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial award for human rights last October.

An additional 300 to 600 political prisoners are to remain under detention, according to estimates by opposition leaders and human rights activists.

“I have mixed feelings about the amnesty,” said In Jae Keun, Kim’s wife, who shared the Kennedy award for her work as a prisoners’ rights activist. “I’ve been struggling to secure the release of all political prisoners, not just my husband’s.”

A minor demonstration had flared Wednesday evening in downtown Seoul, with a small crowd of anti-government protesters at Myongdong Cathedral throwing rocks and firebombs at riot police, who showed restraint.

Earlier in the day, about 50 women belonging to the Democratic Family Assn., a group of political prisoners’ relatives, rallied outside ruling party headquarters to protest Roh’s human rights record. Participants said plainclothes police beat them and removed them to the outskirts of the city before releasing them. Two women were taken to a hospital for treatment, they said.

Called Worse Than Last Year

“I’ve never seen such brutality before,” said So Hye Ryon, 45, wife of a dissident who has been jailed since 1979 and who was not released today because he refuses to repent. She wore a bandage on an arm that she said a police officer twisted in a scuffle.

“Things are a lot worse now than they were a year ago,” So said. “We demonstrated at the same place on June 29 last year, but we weren’t beaten like this.”

Roh, speaking to a meeting of government and ruling party officials, said his declaration of June 29, 1987, had “ushered in a new age of democracy” in South Korea, where today “no citizen is suffering from undemocratic repression or infringement of human rights.”

But he added that “public anxiety is mounting due to the perception the state power is incapable of checking” radical protests, and he said the government will no longer tolerate illegal dissent.

“Any attempt to obstruct the Seoul Olympics must be squashed in the cause of national self-esteem and global peace and amity,” Roh said. “It will be difficult to faultlessly stage the Olympics amidst flying firebombs and clouds of tear gas attendant on violent mob actions. If the Seoul Olympics, which will be the largest athletic festival in the history of mankind, is spoiled in that way, the entire world will ridicule us as a foolish people,” he added.

But a new atmosphere of openness is evident in South Korean society a year after Roh initiated his democratic reforms. Student protests in early June, which centered on demands for increased contacts with North Korea, seem to have had an effect. Riot police crushed an attempt by students June 10 to march to the demilitarized zone to meet their counterparts from North Korea, but the government has since responded by lifting restrictions on discussing the issue of reunification.