Former S. Korean President Eases Hunger Strike : Asia: Chun takes some nutrients. Meanwhile, new probe begins of massacre in which he crushed opposition.

Hospitalized former President Chun Doo Hwan has eased the hunger strike he began upon his arrest early this month, ending any serious immediate threat to his health, South Korean authorities said Wednesday.

Chun, 64, a former general, was taken from prison to Seoul’s National Police Hospital a week ago after refusing to take solid food since his Dec. 3 arrest for a 1979 mutiny.

In prison, he subsisted on water and barley tea, a common drink made from soaking roasted barley in boiling water.

He remains under police custody in the hospital.

Although he has refused intravenous treatment, Chun since Monday has accepted spring water containing nutrients, the doctor in charge of his treatment, Lee Kwon Jon, said Wednesday.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, traveled to the southwestern city of Kwangju on Wednesday to launch a new investigation into a May 1980 massacre of pro-democracy protesters in which Chun crushed opposition to his power.

That bloody crackdown, in which at least 240 people died, set the stage for Chun to assume the presidency later that year. Many Kwangju residents say they believe about 1,000 people were killed in the incident.

The four-member team from the Seoul district prosecutor’s office visited key scenes of clashes between protesters and soldiers, including the plaza in front of the provincial government office.

They also visited Chunam, a village on the outskirts of Kwangju, to interview the lone survivor of an incident during the 1980 clash in which a van with about 12 passengers was fired on by martial-law troops.

Hong Kum Sook, who was 17 when the incident occurred, told the investigators that soldiers of the 11th Airborne Brigade executed two injured men in the van. Based on her allegation, the investigators said they will try to track down the officer who ordered the executions, the Korea Times reported.

One of the investigators is scheduled to remain in Kwangju through the end of the week to record testimony from about 100 witnesses to the events of May 1980.

Prosecutors also said they have made progress in gathering evidence on a slush fund Chun is suspected of having accumulated while in office.

Senior prosecutor Lee Chong Chan told reporters Wednesday that Chun is suspected of having put some of that money into bonds, securities and certificates of deposit around the time he stepped down from the presidency in early 1988.

Some reports in the South Korean media have said Chun may be indicted as early as Friday on corruption charges stemming from the alleged slush fund.

The softening of Chun’s insistence on maintaining his hunger strike began after his wife, Lee Soon Ja, visited him Christmas Day, his doctor said.

Chun then began requesting “rice water”--the somewhat nutritious liquid, usually discarded, obtained when grains of rice are washed before they are cooked.

The doctor cited concerns about hygiene in explaining a delay in providing rice water to Chun.

But the doctor also implied that the former president’s wish would be granted soon.

Later Wednesday, a Justice Ministry official said that Chun had also begun requesting cold radish soup.

Chun’s lawyer, Lee Yang Woo, told Yonhap news agency that Chun had agreed to end his fast.

“I asked him to quit fasting, and he said OK,” the attorney said.

During his fast, Chun’s weight has reportedly dropped to 134 pounds from his normal 161 pounds.