Korea Uses Reunification to Hide Its Own Repression : Human Rights: Roh Tae Woo talks of links with the North, but many charge it’s a ploy to keep the South down.

The world is experiencing reunification fever. But while Germany’s efforts are truly good news, South Korea’s reunification soundings with North Korea are only a smoke screen to hide human-rights violations and to abolish direct election of the president.

The reunification issue must not divert America’s attention from the threat to democracy posed by the actions of South Korean President Roh Tae Woo’s ruling Democratic Liberal Party.

When Roh was elected in 1987, he vowed to enact democratic reforms and observe human rights. At that time, many Koreans and Americans were heartened by the new freedom enjoyed by the press and the notable participation of loyal opposition parties in running the country.

But in May, Roh merged his Democratic Justice Party with two of the three existing opposition parties to form the Democratic Liberal Party. Last week, the new party reportedly railroaded 26 laws through the legislature in 30 seconds, leaving members of the remaining opposition with gaping mouths. Among these was a law consolidating the army, navy and air force under a new all-powerful chief not even accountable to the South Korean secretary of defense.

Last Saturday, hundreds of thousands of South Koreans protested for democracy. On Monday, the entire opposition--79 members of the 299-member legislature--resigned en masse, warning that Roh was trying to use relations with North Korea to divert attention from his domestic problems.

Human and labor rights are widely violated. Asia Watch reports that South Korea holds more than 1,000 political prisoners. Many of these political prisoners are labor activists, detained under an arcane law that forbids third parties, even lawyers, from giving advice in a labor dispute. Last year, the National Assembly passed revisions to this third-party intervention law, only to have them vetoed by Roh.

Perhaps most ironic in light of Roh’s new emphasis on reunification is the government’s widespread use of the national security law, which forbids unauthorized contacts with North Korea, to detain persons who express viewpoints at odds with the government. The opposition has proposed major revisions to this law, but the ruling party keeps refusing to consider them.

But the most serious threat to South Korean democracy comes in a seemingly innocuous form--the ruling party’s threat to amend the South Korean constitution to move to a parliamentary form of government. This would end direct election of the president and mean a virtual return to dictatorship.

The three leaders who consolidated power in the Democratic Liberal Party earlier this year would be able to hand-pick a puppet prime minister, who could eliminate the freedoms that the people of South Korea have so valiantly strived to achieve.

In South Korea, American policy can and should make a difference. With a trade volume topping $30 billion and about 40,000 U.S. troops still stationed there, the close relationship between our two governments is obvious.

Human-rights violations by the Korean government, a government so strongly supported by the United States, fuel anti-American sentiments among the Korean people.

Rightly or wrongly, some Koreans blame the United States for the 1980 Kwangju massacre, in which about 200 (by the official count) to 2,000 (according to popular belief) protestors were killed by the military. In May, students set fire to the U.S. Information Service center in Seoul.

Yet U.S. policy has largely ignored South Korea’s human rights violations. Last October, Roh traveled to the United States and was welcomed with open arms. He was invited to meet with President Bush and to address a joint session of Congress.

Our commitment is not just to the South Korean government, but to the Korean people. We must begin to put diplomatic pressure on the Roh government to allow freedom of expression and association. We also should strongly urge Roh to maintain South Korea’s presidential system of government.

As Roh spouts reunification rhetoric, the United States government must challenge him to put his own house in order first. There will be plenty of time to slowly but surely build a walkway to the house next door.