South Korean Leader Roh Arrives for L.A. Visit

South Korean President Roh Tae Woo told a gathering of Koreans in Los Angeles on Wednesday that he was “pleased to represent a country that no longer has to ask favors at every meeting with a superpower.”

He spoke at a reception in the Century Plaza Hotel to about 700 Koreans from several Western states while approximately 75 protesters demonstrated noisily but peacefully outside.

Roh was in Los Angeles on a goodwill tour aimed at improving U.S.-South Korean relations and winning support from Los Angeles’ 350-000 member Korean-American community, the largest outside of the homeland.

He arrived under heavy security at Los Angeles International Airport, where he was welcomed by about 300 supporters, who were kept about 20 yards away by barriers and law enforcement officers.

His arrival also brought out nearly two dozen protesters--considerably fewer than the number predicted by protest organizers--who chanted “step down Roh Tae Woo” and “release every political prisoner.” Roh has come under some criticism at home and abroad for alleged human rights violations by his administration and a crackdown on political dissidents.

But Roh, who was accompanied by his wife, Oak Sook, did not see the protesters. He was escorted out of the airport through an exit far from the protesting group.

Roh’s stop in Los Angeles culminated a four-day visit to the United States that took the South Korean leader from Capitol Hill to the Century Plaza. He stopped by Ronald Reagan’s Century City offices and told the former President, “You look 10 years younger that when we last met,” said Reagan spokesman Mark Weinberg. Roh also praised Reagan for spurring “the move toward democracy in China and the Soviet Union,” Weinberg said.

Roh is scheduled to address a breakfast meeting today of the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, a nonpartisan organization that often invites diplomats, political figures and national leaders to speak.

This is Roh’s second visit to the United States since being elected president of South Korea in December, 1987.

But it is perhaps his most important, as he tried to ease tensions that have arisen between his young republic, coming into economic independence for the first time in its history, and the United States, which after years of supporting South Korea now feels shut out of its progress by unfair trade restrictions.

“We are allies,” Roh told members of Congress in a speech that recognized the United States as his country’s largest trading partner. “We (South Koreans) are undergoing an inevitably painful transformation in adapting ourselves to the principles of free trade but . . . I am certain that all of these issues will be resolved to mutual satisfaction.”

Recently, South Korea’s National Assembly passed a resolution calling for a gradual opening of South Korean agricultural markets. However, some in Congress complain that the nation continues to enforce protectionist measures on products ranging from beef to apples.

Chull Huh, secretary general of the Korean Chamber of Commerce in Los Angeles, said of the protests taking place in his homeland that there are always people who will feel dissatisfied and left out in a country developing as rapidly as South Korea.

“American democracy you cannot expect,” he said. “We are a special situation because we’re facing a North Korean Communist threat.”

Still, protest organizers in Los Angeles were critical of Roh and suspicious of his motive for visiting the United States, calling it a public relations ploy aimed at reinvigorating Roh’s popularity in South Korea by drumming up support among his countrymen abroad.

“Dissident groups protest every day in South Korea,” said Kenneth Roh (no relation), who said he organized the protests to give a balanced view of how Korean-Americans view Roh and his policies.

“He’s in trouble in South Korea. He’s here on a promotional tour. The purpose (of the visit) is to draw the impression that he is greatly welcome here and send it home through the government-sponsored press as an advertisement.”

Kenneth Roh and other protesters planned to ask the president to begin reunification efforts with the north and to include a supervisory body from the United Nations in the talks.

However, a spokesman at the Korean Consulate, who asked not to be identified, said that “the unrest is not the reason why President Roh is coming to Los Angeles.”

“The tensions in South Korea raised by student protests have always gone on. We consider them normal,” the spokesman continued. “Roh’s visit to Los Angeles is especially to encourage the Korean-Americans to be successful, to promote and encourage Korean-Americans to do well in studies and business.”

Those invited to the Century Plaza reception were not necessarily supporters of Roh’s government, the spokesman added.

Times staff writer Mike Ward also contributed to this story.