20 Protest S. Korean Arrests of Activists

About 20 demonstrators picketed the Korean consul general's office in the Mid-Wilshire District Thursday, protesting the South Korean government's mass arrest of reunification activists this week.

Members of the Pan-Korean Conference Preparatory Committee of North America, who carried placards and marched at the consular office, called for a more lenient stance by South Korean President Roh Tae Woo, which would allow public participation in peace talks with North Korea. The group also chanted slogans demanding the release of political prisoners in South Korea.

The demonstration came on the heels of protests in South Korea surrounding the August 15 anniversary of the end of the Japanese occupation of Korea. At the end of World War II, Allied forces defeated Japan and divided the country between capitalist South and communist North. No peace treaty has even been agreed on and the peninsula remains divided and heavily armed.