S. Korean Students Protest Peer’s Beating, Death

Thousands of college students marched through South Korea’s capital Thursday in rapidly escalating mass student protests that for the first time are calling for the ouster of President Kim Young Sam.

The protests--triggered by the recent death of a student demonstrator after he was beaten by riot police and suffered a heart attack--could hardly come at a worse time for Kim, whose ruling New Korea Party is already expected to lose its parliamentary majority in crucial legislative elections next week. Kim has been president since 1993.

The sharp turn of campus sentiment against Kim--who in the 1980s was revered by students as a leading fighter for democracy--is widely viewed as damaging to the ruling party, especially among younger voters. The party has already been plagued by a corruption scandal that erupted several weeks ago involving an aide to Kim.

Protesters rallied throughout the day Thursday at Yonsei University, around a coffin containing the body of Roh Soo Sok, 20. A huge sign by the main campus gate declared: “Before we bury Soo Sok, let’s topple down Kim Young Sam, murderer and chief thief!”

With banners flapping in the chill wind of a sunny day, protesters chanted: “Judgment to Kim Young Sam’s murderous government! Disband the riot police, who murder all our friends! Step down, Kim Young Sam, who murders our friends under the disguise of civilian government!”

Late in the day, a column of thousands of students--some estimates placed the number at more than 10,000--marched into Seoul’s downtown business district, where they clashed with riot police who blocked their way. Helmeted police with shields and gas masks used repeated volleys of tear gas over several hours before the students finally dispersed.

In addition to general calls for Kim to be toppled, the key demands of the students were that the president reveal how much money was spent on his 1992 election campaign and that the government and education authorities roll back recent tuition increases.

It was during a protest over these two issues last week that Roh was beaten and died. An official autopsy determined that Roh had suffered bruises but that he died of a heart attack. Students charge that even if cardiac arrest caused his death, it was triggered by police brutality.

“The cause of Roh Soo Sok’s death was that Kim Young Sam feared public opinion would turn against him if students demand he reveal his election fund,” a speaker using a bullhorn declared during the rally on the Yonsei campus. “So he ordered the police to disperse demonstrators with all force, using violence. That is the real cause of Roh Soo Sok’s death! So we must make Kim Young Sam step down!”

Opposition groups have charged that Kim’s 1992 campaign far exceeded legal spending limits, and that much of its funding came from a $653-million slush fund that his predecessor, former President Roh Tae Woo, has admitted accumulating while in office.

Kim merged his opposition party with Roh’s ruling party in 1990. Roh is now imprisoned and faces trial on corruption charges stemming from the slush fund and on sedition charges stemming from his support of a 1980 mutiny.

Kim has denied receiving any money directly from Roh. Neither he nor his party, however, has said clearly whether funds from Roh flowed into the campaign.

“In the beginning I rather liked him because he struggled for democracy,” Kim Dong Hee, a business administration major at Yonsei who joined the protest, said of the president. “But when he merged his party into the ruling party, I thought he was too greedy for power.”

Plans originally announced for Thursday called for a funeral march from the university to a Seoul park, followed by transport of Roh Soo Sok’s body to the city of Kwangju and his burial there in a cemetery dedicated to martyrs of democracy.

By postponing the funeral march and burial, and keeping control of Roh’s body, student leaders ensured emotions will continue to run high.

“We will indefinitely postpone the funeral service until the whole truth about the incident is revealed,” Park Byong Un, a student leader at Yonsei, declared at a news conference. “We demand that the top government leader apologize.”

Chi Jung Nam of The Times’ Seoul Bureau contributed to this report.