S. Korea Police Halt Protesters’ Funeral March

Hoping to expand more than two weeks of protests, students and dissidents gathered here today to pay homage to their dead and reiterate their political demands for the ouster of President Roh Tae Woo.

Riot police fired tear gas to halt a funeral march by more than 5,000 people attempting to move the body of Kang Kyung Dae, 20, from Myungji University to Yonsei University for a commemorative service in honor of Kang and five dissidents who have committed suicide in protest over the police beating that caused Kang’s death April 26.

Witnesses said it appeared the march had deviated from the route approved by police, Reuters news service reported. Apparently, the marchers attempted to take Kang’s body to the plaza in front of city hall in downtown Seoul. Police had already turned down a plan for three hours of anti-government speeches and ceremonies there, offering the dissidents an alternative plan for a “roadside ceremony” at a park near the university.

Kang’s death ignited the most severe protests against Roh’s government since he took office in February, 1988.

On July 9, 1987, when dissidents carried out a funeral for a student killed when he was struck in the head by a riot policeman’s tear gas shell, more than a million people lined the streets for the procession to city hall--bringing to a climax a month of protests that extracted a pledge from Roh, then a presidential candidate, to end authoritarian government.

Roh, in fact, has carried out widespread democratic reforms but has not removed all of the vestiges of 16 years of authoritarian rule by two of his predecessors.

Kang was the first of six dissidents who have died in the current round of protests against the government.

On Monday, 47 students broke into the headquarters of Roh’s ruling Democratic Liberal Party, smashed furniture, broke windows and shouted anti-government slogans from the windows for about 30 minutes before police reinforcements arrived to arrest them.