S. Korea Opposition Leader Kim Dae Jung Begins Hunger Strike

South Korean opposition leader Kim Dae Jung challenged the government Monday by starting a hunger strike, a move that President Roh Tae Woo said will increase political and social instability.

The 66-year-old Kim, for three decades South Korea’s best-known opposition politician, began his fast to regain support for his lagging political program. He is demanding that the government hold local elections and that it overhaul the Defense Security Agency.

“It is regrettable that the hunger strike will increase political and social instability,” Roh told ruling party co-leader Kim Young Sam during a meeting at Roh’s official residence, a government spokesman said.

In the meantime, Roh tried to minimize the political damage resulting from charges that his nation’s Defense Security Agency has spied on more than 1,300 civilians. On Monday, he accepted the forced resignations of his defense minister and the chief of military intelligence as a result of the charges.

Roh also met with Japanese politician Shin Kanemaru, whose recent trip to North Korea, which led to an agreement on normalizing relations, has annoyed Seoul.

Kanemaru, a powerful member of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, assured Roh that South Korea would be fully briefed in advance on Tokyo’s future approaches to North Korea.

In another development, North and South Korean officials met twice Monday at the border hamlet of Panmunjom to discuss arrangements for sports and cultural exchanges later this month.