S. Korea Dissidents Again Battle Police; Seoul Issues Warning

Radical students and dissidents fought South Korean riot police in street battles in Seoul and other cities Thursday for the second day, despite a government warning against violence.

Riot police moved swiftly to disperse the groups of 200 to 500 students who chanted “Down with President Roh Tae Woo!” during scattered protests in the capital.

Thousands of riot police were deployed in downtown areas. They tightened street checks and took away young pedestrians suspected of participating in the clashes.

Shortly before nightfall, riot troops fired tear gas to disperse 1,500 students carrying firebombs who had occupied a main street on the eastern edge of downtown.

News reports said thousands of radical students armed with rocks, steel pipes and firebombs battled police Thursday outside about 40 campuses or in the streets nationwide. Details were not given.

Police did not say how many people were arrested Thursday.

Police detained 1,864 people in Seoul and 16 other cities during Wednesday’s street clashes, the largest and most violent since Roh took office in February, 1988.

About 100,000 students and dissidents participated in Wednesday’s protests, and 247 police were injured. Protesters demanded that Roh annul the January merger of his governing party with two opposition groups and resign.

Opposition and radical students say that Roh’s ruling Democratic Liberal Party, formed after the merger of three parties, was a “political coup d’etat “ because it was not ratified in an election. They contend that the merger in effect nullified elections in which people voted for the two opposition parties as an anti-government expression. Before the merger, Roh’s party lacked a majority in the National Assembly; the merged party has a sizable majority.

On Wednesday, protesters attacked 24 police stations, governing party offices and government buildings. An office of the U.S. Information Service center in Seoul was gutted by firebombs.

Roh’s government warned Thursday that it would move swiftly and forcibly to block labor and political violence.

Dissidents said they would stage more protests.

“Let’s destroy the pro-American fascist” and “Drive out the Yankees,” about 200 people shouted during a rally Thursday at Myungdong Cathedral in central Seoul.

In 1987, the cathedral was the focal point of nationwide anti-government protests. That unrest forced authoritarian President Chun Doo Hwan to carry out major democratic reforms, including the presidential election that brought Roh to office.