On September 17, the south Korean prosecution indicted 438 more
students who were captured after police stormed Yonsei University
in Seoul August 20. The students were attempting to hold a
reunification festival that the government declared illegal and
violently suppressed.
Kim Won-chi, a senior Seoul prosecutor used the occasion to
say that "the Yonsei protest was masterminded by the pro-North
Korean group Pomminnyon, the Pan-National Alliance for the
Reunification of Korea. Hanchongryon, the Korean Federation of
University Students Councils, which was behind the Yonsei protest,
is a radical group affiliated with Pomminnyon." He added that "Both
Pomminnyon and Hanchongryon have followed the directions directly
from North Korea, calling for the pullout of U.S. military
servicemen from the South."
Rodong-sinmun, organ of the Workers' Party of Korea, denounced
what it calls this premeditated campaign to stifle Hanchongryon by
linking it with the north in a far-fetched way, saying: "This
is...an assault on students under Hanchongryon by branding them as
'mobsters' and 'communists.' The offensive against Hanchongryon
will be developed into a repressive campaign to emasculate the
pro-reunification democratic forces. If these forces remain an
onlooker to the repression of Hanchongryon, it will bring about an
irrevocable damage to justice. It is time these forces actively
support the fighting students more vigorously, and courageously
join the struggle against Kim Young-sam."
Among those indicted include 38 leaders of Hanchongryon
charged with violation of the fascist National Security Law. The
indicted key leaders of the federation are Sol Jung-ho, 25, of
Dankook University, and Lee Kyong-ho, 22, of Korea University.
The prosecution admits that 5,848 people were hauled off
during the protest, and an undisclosed number since that time,
recording the largest number of arrested people in one case since
the south Korean government was established. More than 3,300
university students have been booked without physical detention,
370 others were brought to summery courts and 1,672 were released
with a warning. All others are still being held. 10 students have
been charged with assault causing the death of a policeman. The
prosecution said it has obtained arrest warrants under the National
Security Act for key leaders of Hanchongryon, including chairman
Chong Myong-ki, along with 15 others, and operates a special task
force to track them down.
Shawgi Tell
University at Buffalo
Graduate School of Education
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
