Down With Dictatorship!

Some 7,300 delegates of the ruling Democratic Justice Party gathered in Seoul's Chamsil Gymnasium last week to select their nominee for President of South Korea. What a surprise. There was only one candidate, and his acceptance speech had been printed and distributed even before the vote took place. At 2 p.m., the convention cast 7,260 votes for Party Chairman Roh Tae Woo, the handpicked successor of President Chun Doo Hwan and the almost certain winner in the national elections planned for December. By 5 p.m. thousands of demonstrators had poured into the streets of Seoul and 21 other cities to protest the nomination.

Student-led demonstrators in Seoul battled police in the most widespread protests in years. Waving Korean flags and chanting "Down with dictatorship!," one group beat police outside the huge Shinsegye department store. At the Roman Catholic Myongdong Cathedral in the heart of the city, protesters built barricades and hurled fire bombs at police, who advanced behind volleys of tear gas.

In the city of Masan, some 200 miles from Seoul, tear gas drifted into a stadium where the Korean soccer team was playing Egypt's national squad, forcing a halt to the game. When 3,000 spectators shouted in anger, 500 officers entered the stadium and emptied it of fans. In all, nearly 4,000 demonstrators were detained nationwide.