SOUTH KOREAN STUDENTS: THE POTENTIAL FOR UNREST (DELETED)

Created: 4/1/1980

OCR scan of the original document, errors are possible

South Koreanhe Potential for Unrcsd

Government and military authorities believe Iherc will be significant cjfmpui de mom Ira (ions this spring, largely because of student tradition and the beady new atmosphereoo the campuses" iiion of President Pirfc Ctiung Hcc last October. J

campus situationScat up substantially by mid-April, when students will markh anniversary of the riotshatever the magnitude of any possible demonstrations, the students cannot bybriniadical reorientation of the Sooth Korean poiilical esiablishnenl

Aware ihai iheif "revolution"0 led loa militiry takeover, student Leaders may tryvoid creating any such opening lv thr jnny ihii yr.n

demonstrationsduce no grrai turmoil; ihcy mUIransitory costs by helping toigh level of public amieiyifficult process of political uamiLon. They will compliant the pnilion of those opposition polnieUru who lyrapf thirc wilh many of ihe students' causa and yet believe lhat action in the streets should be avoided

during this period, aad contribute to the irnageonth Korea on the

verge of insial>ilily|

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South Koreanhe Potential for UnreuJ

traditionary have been the most vocal among Korean dissident groups. This tradition goes back io Ibe Japanese colonial period, when students were involved in9 Independence Movement and9 Kwangju Student Uprising. Student demonstrations in0 triggered the do*nfall of the Syngman Rhee government, endowing studentsystique of being tbe conscience of the nation and the voice of the antieslabiishmeni population. Throughout, students staged demonstrations against government policies, corruption, and social injustice. Inhe target of their resentment became ihc highly authoritarian Yusin system of President Park Chung Hecj

Morehalf Ihe nation'sihcolleges and universities in Seoul. Tbe concentration of ibis large student population in the capital contributes further to Iheir political importance. The most prestigiousYonsei. and Seoullend to produce the leaders of sludeal protest movements, who feel they are an elite that must take lhe lead on national issues. Students of these "Big Three" universities compete with one another in organizing aotigovcrnmcnt proiests and considerailer of school honor to be Ibe first toemonstration or to advance an issue!

tradition and inclination. Korean college students tend toon Ihe side of the politically and socially disadvantaged.issues raiher than personalities, they also tendjo allyelements that are at odds wiih the govern men I

Orsanijaiioa and Tactics

there is no well-developed or cohesive national studentpowerful enough to launch nationwide strikes or demonstrations, lhe students may have improved their internaiversity networks for exchanging iews and ctiopcfait.

closed colleges and universities and bivouacked the military on camp .ses; made educational authorities responsible for ibc acts or the students, punishing the faculty for student demonstrations; expelled siudenis and forced them to promise that they would not engage in anligovcrnmcnt activity; and declared martial law.ast resort^" j

Many student leaders sec similarities between the events leading to ihe overthrow of the Syngman Rhee government and those leading to Ihe assassination of Paik-P

(Some student leaders

view Park's death as the first steptudent-led -revolution" which they fed oblijtted lo sustain by their active participauon in the political process,!

Many, albcil not all. of the issues lhal prompted student unrest duringave been removed. Park can no longer be used as tbe focal point of student anger, and interim Presideni Choi Kyu Hah has cautiouslyumber of measures to mollify siudenis and other dissident elements. He has abolished the repressivehat Park had used to lupprcssall criticism of himself and the Yusin system and has released from prison alliolators; has permitted the universities to reinstate students who were expelled and faculty members who were dismissed for antigovernmenl activities; and has restored the civil liberties of prominent dissidents such as KimDacJungj |

Slmiemi Dt/emu Corps

A major theme of past universitya par with the call for the abolishing of the Yusinbeen the cVmard foe greater campus freedom, including tbe elimination ofStudent Defense Corps (SDC) and the restoration of student government. Although Ihe SDC has been recently reorganized, it stillotentially explosive issue. Organized5 in the wake of the fall of South Vietnam amid fearsorth Korean invasion, the SDC had been one of the country's three main paramilitary organizations. (The others are ihe Homeland Reserve and the Civil Defenseomprising all high school and university students of both sexes. lhe_SDCofficial sludeni, or^ani rat ions and student :rnment

of the first student grievancei taken up by the

I

Noi till students ate satisfied with these chanecs. Manifestos circulated on major campuses in the Seoul area in laic February scorned lhe limited reforms and repeated earlier demands for compleie aboHtionof the SDC .njjWcsioraiion of democratic siudcni (jvernmentf

idjiunjilf

Other student demands include the right to conduct student council mettles at the time and place of theirthey are regulated by school officials.o want to print their own publications without interference from the school admingtraiion. and ihey want an end to formal supervision of their activities)

NationalCht kym

onfor Kim Chae-kyu. lhe convicted assassin of President Park, has

been building up among students andopposJlion figures and could emergeignificant ractor in mobiliring student opinion against the government. Indeed, ihts is the roost immediateumber of volatile nalional issues that ihc students arc expected to champion during the coming months. Many students see Kimero who has served his country by ridding it of

If i

a dictator and ihey want bim spared. They liken him to the famous patriot An Chunc-kun. whoassassioaied Japanese Governor General of Korea Jio tlirobumi

By early January, student activists had begun printing leaflets callingeversal of Kim's death sentence; some leaflets have been disseminated in downtown Seoul. Signs bearing quotes from Kim's statement in court, including re'erences toctober Revolution"-rKtm's term for thebegun to spring upon campuses,!

issue could LKim.

Although it is doubtful thai the majority of the population shares the Students'and intellectuals' romamici/ed vicwjjfiJieiBrjsjdxnliaLa^

ITT,

rell aware of the impact thai this I; eannounced lhat thev will notjift martial law

Political Istues

Siudenis are expected to scireumber of: Acr national issues to muster support; any one of them coulduring the yeirajor ci use. The foremost of ihese issues is political libtralncuon. V

I If ihe government draftto be announcedrestrictiveight lake to the strtetsTThe slow pdceTOi

libcraltzation alsootential irouhle spot Opposition political MIDWOU feel that ibc draftingonstitution should not lake loo long, and that the government's-nplelkn of conuilBlional revisione endhebe shortened J

[The longer martialetained, the more !ikely arc

Vtudents to scire upon il as an Issue for demonstrations.^"

Another possible campus issue is Ihel of poiilical prisoners. Although ihc government has released all persons jailed under lhe emergency measures and rcstercd ihcir poiilical rightsarch, manyas dissident poet Kim Chiimprisoned under the Anti-Communist Law and other jgaay

The foremost factor thai will lend to deier students from serious antigovernmeni demonsirationsa sirong appreciation of Ihe need to maintain Mlioaal stability during the periodofpolitical transition J

I Most Students proba Hy

will be willing lo refrain from excesses as Ions as ibey feel progress is being made and thai lhe government has not betrayed their trust'"

Shouldbloody cunfronkitioa develop, tbe matt serious eventuality would be the deathtudent at ibe hands ci tbe pobec or trulitars. Governmcri officials are all too aware that it was the police Idlingigh school

siudeai in Masao0 thai provided tbe student movementa martyr. sotaLfsiDg studec^ apfciuco to tbe Rberhkh led to

Student rstbois have been organizing coounirircs on mdiridaal camposes since Um month,robably win be socae rime before ihey wifl be abie to launch Urge^caie demonsmtiecs lhalto spiH over imo jhesuretslj

Ibcaoenc wjD cefcbraie the TOib annnrrsary ol

KoiJuihiti enpriLGrveo the symbolic significance

of tbe evcm.it cotdd well serve as the focal point for antiesublisbincm

J cavities |

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Original document.

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