South Korea: A Halt to Merger Mania

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Amid shouts of "Let's regain our national identity!" some 13,000 student protesters massed at Yonsei University in downtown Seoul last week. Their goal: to accompany an unofficial 13-member delegation to the "truce village" of Panmunjom, 30 miles away, in the Demilitarized Zone. There a matching delegation of 13 from Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang, the Communist North Korean capital, waited to hold "reunification talks."

The protesters never made it. About 40,000 combat police, wielding clubs and tossing tear-gas canisters, blocked the roadways and chased militants who tried to catch north-bound trains. Some demonstrators fought back with rocks and fire bombs. By week's end more than 800 students had been taken in for questioning.

Reunification of the two countries, which were split in 1948, is not a forbidden topic. Every South Korean President has said that rejoining the two countries is a top priority. But relations between North and South are still hostile, and many South Koreans who cheered the students' successful push for democratic reforms last summer have reservations about the protesters' current cause. As the owner of a Seoul bakery summed it up: "I supported the students + when they fought for democracy. This time I don't understand them."