The World - News from Sept. 4, 1988

Radical South Korean students demanding that North Korea be allowed to co-host the Summer Olympics pelted police with rocks and firebombs, but the Communist nation said again that it will boycott the Games and asked other countries to stay away too. Police carrying iron bars and wooden clubs hurled back rocks and unexploded firebombs at about 600 students in the clash at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul. Several protesters and police were reportedly injured. A declaration by the students said, “If the Olympics cannot help nurture a desirable atmosphere, they are nothing but divisive Olympics, dictatorial Olympics and war Olympics.” North Korea reaffirmed that it will boycott the Summer Games, which begin Sept. 17, because its demand to be a co-host had been rejected.