S. Korea Prime Minister Offers to Resign

In a move that was widely expected to defuse much of the political tension that has beleaguered President Roh Tae Woo since late April, Prime Minister Ro Jai Bong submitted his resignation today, the president’s office announced.

In an unscheduled one-hour meeting, Ro, 54, told the president he intends to resign “to accommodate the people’s sentiment and rejuvenate the atmosphere for conducting national affairs.”

Although Roh said he would “cautiously study” whether to accept the resignation, the fact that the announcement of the move was made by both the presidential Blue House and the prime minister’s office appeared to underscore the certainty that Ro, who developed the image of a hard-liner since his appointment last Dec. 27, would step down. If Roh intended to reject the resignation, no announcement would have been made, said one high government official, who asked not to be named.

Spurred by the beating death of a 20-year-old student by riot police April 26, the New Democratic Party, the major opposition force, made Ro’s resignation its chief demand in widespread protests against a whole range of Roh’s policies.

Although students and dissidents, who have staged often violent protests that continued in Seoul for 23 days through Saturday, had demanded the ouster of the president himself, their demand represented the view of a tiny minority.

Until this morning, Roh, who had fired his home minister and arrested five riot police officers accused of beating to death Kang Kyung Dae, a freshman at Myungji University in Seoul, had insisted that Ro remain in office.

The resignation apparently caught the president by surprise.

Kang Yong Shik, the prime minister’s own secretary, said not even he had been informed that Ro intended to submit his resignation when he met Roh at 9:30 a.m.

Kim Yoon Hwan, the ruling Democratic Liberal Party’s floor leader in the National Assembly, said the announcement caught the ruling party by surprise, too.

The president tried to persuade Ro to reconsider, the Blue House announcement said. But Ro replied that he “knew the people are uncomfortable about the whole range of national affairs” and told the president that he should appoint a new prime minister who “could give the government a fresh appearance and meet the needs and expectations of the people.”

In addition to protests over the killing of student Kang, discontent was reported widespread both with the government’s severe crackdown on dissent and with such economic problems as rising inflation and housing costs.

Kim said Roh was expected to name a new prime minister later this afternoon or tomorrow. A Cabinet reshuffle would then be carried out, he added.

The ruling party also said it would delay an announcement, previously planned for Thursday, of candidates for assemblies in provinces and large cities in an election next month.

Roh said last week that he would announce a series of measures to defuse the worst political turmoil he has faced since taking over in February, 1988, as South Korea’s first popularly elected president since 1971. That announcement, which was expected to include promises of new political and economic reforms, the South Korean media reported, was still expected later this week or early next week.

Ro, an American-educated political scientist, had been plucked from Seoul National University, where he had been a professor, to serve as special assistant to the president for political affairs in 1989. Shortly afterward, Roh promoted him to chief presidential secretary and then named him prime minister last December.

His stature rose so rapidly that some politicians, both in the ruling party and in the opposition, had begun speculating that Roh might pick him as his successor. Roh is limited by the constitution to one five-year term, and a presidential election is expected in late 1992.

Ro’s hard-line approach to law-and-order issues made him the focus of protests after student Kang was beaten to death.

In another development today, prosecutors announced that they had identified four riot police officers who severely beat Kwan Chang Soo, 22, an unemployed high school graduate, in the early morning hours Monday in Kwangju as a two-day protest was winding down in that southwestern provincial capital. Kwan underwent brain surgery a second time Tuesday night at a Kwangju hospital and was reported in critical condition.

Revelation of police involvement in yet another beating added pressure on Ro to resign, analysts said.

Including student Kang, a labor union leader who plunged to his death while under police custody and six protesters who killed themselves in self-immolations, eight people have died in the unrest since April 26.