S. Korea Calm as Regime Reports No Plans Now to Call Out Military

An atmosphere of calm prevailed in South Korea on Thursday after the deaths of six riot policemen in a clash with students and President Roh Tae Woo’s warning that he might invoke emergency powers in a crackdown on dissent.

Government sources made it clear Thursday that Roh has no intention of immediately calling out the military to restore order, an option he had hinted at in a televised address Wednesday night. Roh’s message was merely that “when he has the consensus of the people that things are out of hand, he may have to resort to extraordinary measures,” government spokesman Park Shin Il said.

Under the constitution, the president can respond to a national emergency by issuing special decrees, deploying troops in limited areas or declaring martial law. But his actions would be subject to repeal by the National Assembly, which is currently dominated by opposition parties advocating democratic reforms.

In any event, there were few signs Thursday that the situation was continuing to deteriorate.

A massive labor rally planned in the southern industrial city of Masan failed to materialize after about 8,000 riot police, some of them wearing black ribbons in mourning for their six fallen comrades in the nearby port of Pusan, cordoned off the area.

They manned checkpoints at major roads around the city and at bus terminals and railroad stations to prevent students and workers from gathering in the city, detaining more than 400, local news reports said.

No major disturbances were reported at the nation’s university campuses, which seemed unusual after weeks of almost daily confrontations between students and police.

Students abandoned marathon sit-ins at Korea University and at Doksung Women’s University in Seoul, apparently in an effort to adopt a low profile after Wednesday’s lethal violence at a campus in Pusan.

Roh’s ruling Democratic Justice Party announced Thursday that it is preparing legislation that would not only ban the production and possession of firebombs but also make it a crime to have knowledge of their existence and fail to report it to authorities.

Two riot policemen and a student injured in the incident at Pusan’s Dongui University remained in critical condition late Thursday, according to local news reports.

The casualties occurred when police raided a library where radical students were holding five police hostages.