South Korea Onslaughts of Force and Fury

On the 49th day after death, according to Buddhist teaching, the souls of the dead make their journey into the next world. So it was last week that on the appointed day several thousand students gathered in the streets of Seoul to mark the final passage of Park Jong Chul, a 21-year-old student who had died during a police interrogation. What followed was more like a descent into hell.

The students, joined by an assortment of sympathizers, were met by an overwhelming onslaught of force and fury. Some 10,000 shield-bearing policemen, armored in riot helmets, blocked major street corners. As the students marched in remembrance of their slain comrade, the police fired tear- gas grenades into their midst. Thick clouds of blinding fumes soon routed the protesters, sending them gasping and reeling. One band of Buddhist monks were gassed and shoved as they tried to enter their temple. Chanted several gray- robed monks as they were driven back: "Restore democracy! Overthrow the dictatorship!"

That cry has echoed more and more across South Korea in recent months, and more often than not it has been uttered by the country's students, especially the radical hard-liners. On every side, demands are growing that President Chun Doo Hwan reform a regime that, while not nearly as repressive as Communist North Korea's, stifles dissent and tortures and imprisons political opponents. In frequent demonstrations, university students have demanded an end to dictatorship when Chun, a former general who seized power in 1980, fulfills a pledge to step down next February. The students' aim is nothing less than to bring what they consider democracy to a country that is rapidly becoming an economic power while remaining politically mired in the autocratic traditions of a 5,000-year-old society.

The students, who began a new school term last week, have attracted intense scrutiny by Washington and other capitals. With a 40,000-troop garrison in South Korea, the U.S. views that countryas a key Pacific ally and a bulwark against the Soviet-backed North Korean government. Washington was thus taken aback last year, when North Korean slogans began creeping into South Korean protests and student rhetoric turned sharply anti-American. The U.S. has since urged Chun to help defuse the situation by compromising with the opposition on a formula for the transition to democracy. Secretary of State George Shultz, who visited Seoul last week during a ten-day Far East swing, reportedly received assurances that Chun would seek such a compromise. Said a senior U.S. diplomat: "We believe this is a historic opportunity, and both Chun and the opposition have got to take it." A breakthrough will be difficult to achieve, however, because the country has little tradition of political accommodation.

The students and Chun today seem to be on a collision course. The protesters are clear about what they want. "Most Koreans, whether students or not, favor a return to civilian government," says a former council president at Seoul National University who was jailed for 1 1/2 years for organizing a reading circle. "We want to see a change in the constitution and direct election of a President. This is the most important thing to end the crisis in the country."