South Korea Revolts

Despite rioting in South Korea and the threat of a Communist boycott, there are no plans to shift the 1988 Seoul Summer Games, the International Olympic Committee reported Monday. "There is no change in our position," spokeswoman Michele Verdier said. "The Games were awarded to Seoul and will be held in Seoul." Verdier said the IOC is monitoring the situation closely but noted that there is no provision in the Olympic Charter for canceling or transferring the Games.

Former South Korean President Chun Doo Hwan was sentenced to death today, and former President Roh Tae Woo was given more than 22 years in prison, for seizing power in a 1979 mutiny. In an emotional conclusion to South Korea's "trial of the century," a three-judge panel also confiscated war chests worth about $631 million illegally amassed by Chun and Roh during their dictatorships.

Three retired South Korean army generals, all cronies of former President Chun Doo Hwan, were arrested on charges of involvement in a brutal army crackdown on a civil revolt in 1980. A prosecution official said a Seoul court issued arrest warrants for former army chief of staff Hwang Yung Si and generals-turned-politicians Lee Hak Bong and Yoo Hak Seong. All three were close aides to Chun at the time of the massacre in the city of Kwangju in May 1980.

Three retired South Korean army generals, all cronies of former President Chun Doo Hwan, were arrested on charges of involvement in a brutal army crackdown on a civil revolt in 1980. A prosecution official said a Seoul court issued arrest warrants for former army chief of staff Hwang Yung Si and generals-turned-politicians Lee Hak Bong and Yoo Hak Seong. All three were close aides to Chun at the time of the massacre in the city of Kwangju in May 1980.

Former Presidents Chun Doo Hwan and Roh Tae Woo were indicted today on charges stemming from a 1979 mutiny, prosecutors said, with the formal charges coming just hours after Chun was moved from his prison cell to a hospital. Prosecutors said Chun and Roh were each charged with six offenses relating to the Dec. 12, 1979, takeover of the army: illegal movement of troops, desertion of assigned posts, killing of superiors, injury of superiors, killing of sentries and leading a mutiny.

Radical South Korean students hurled firebombs and tear-gas grenades at an American cultural center in the sixth attack on a U.S. facility in five months, officials said. Three students were arrested after throwing homemade explosives, Molotov cocktails and tear-gas grenades at the American Cultural Center in Taegu, 155 miles southeast of Seoul. There were no injuries and only minor damage to the building. The attack in Taegu came amid days of scattered protests demanding an end to the U.S.

President Roh Tae Woo asked South Koreans today to forgive his authoritarian predecessor, Chun Doo Hwan, who three days earlier made an emotional public apology for his abuses while in power. In an attempt to gain control over a volatile political situation, in which Roh has come under criticism because of direct ties between his administration and Chun's regime, Roh announced a package of democratic concessions and said he will soon reshuffle his government.

Is Korea a buy? A lot of people think so. They are clamoring to invest in a country where students are in the streets throwing stones at policemen and President Chun Doo Hwan has been pressured into holding talks with his political opposition. The result of those talks will be either compromise and political reform or further disorder and bloodshed if the military is ordered to quell the student protests. Are the investors foolhardy to gamble on a good outcome for Korea? Not really.

In a country purged of normal politics by an authoritarian government, national issues are often taken to the streets. Since the anti-government protests broke out June 10, student leaders have put more than 100,000 followers into street demonstrations. Word was passed on Seoul's more than 20 college campuses, and for Friday night's demonstrations leaflets were distributed downtown asking for support and designating assembly points.

Former Presidents Chun Doo Hwan and Roh Tae Woo were indicted today on charges stemming from a 1979 mutiny, prosecutors said, with the formal charges coming just hours after Chun was moved from his prison cell to a hospital. Prosecutors said Chun and Roh were each charged with six offenses relating to the Dec. 12, 1979, takeover of the army: illegal movement of troops, desertion of assigned posts, killing of superiors, injury of superiors, killing of sentries and leading a mutiny.

Following the arrest and interrogation Sunday of former South Korean President Chun Doo Hwan, prosecutors said they now intend to question another former president about a 1979 military mutiny led by Chun. It remained unclear whether prosecutors are interested in former President Choi Kyu Hah only as a witness against Chun and other plotters of the mutiny or whether Choi may also be a subject of investigation for possible crimes.

In a pre-dawn raid on his countryside home, police arrested former South Korean President Chun Doo Hwan today in connection with a 1979 military mutiny that led within months to a coup and a bloody crackdown on the opposition. Grim and silent, the former general was escorted by law enforcement agents from his home in Hapchon, 145 miles south of Seoul, into the glare of television lights. Relatives of victims of an infamous 1980 massacre screamed out: "Execute Chun Doo Hwan!"

Fifty-three members of a socialist student group have been arrested in South Korea and charged with conspiring to overthrow the government, police and the military security command announced. This followed an indictment of 31 people in a similar conspiracy allegedly linked with North Korea.

In a renewed crackdown on violence, the South Korean government ordered police Wednesday to use guns on radicals attacking police posts and public facilities. President Roh Tae Woo directed senior security officials to act against "leftist forces trying to overthrow the government through revolution," presidential spokesman Lee Soo Jung said, the Yonhap news agency reported.

Former President Chun Doo Hwan defied South Korea's National Assembly, refusing to testify on his role in the army's suppression of an uprising in 1980. Officials took the order issued by the National Assembly demanding Chun's cooperation to the remote east coast Buddhist temple where he is now living, but the former president refused it, thus risking prosecution.

The United States on Friday rejected a request by South Korea to have two former American officials testify about the events surrounding Chun Doo Hwan's bloody suppression of demonstrations eight years ago. The South Korean National Assembly has been seeking to question former U.S. Ambassador William H. Gleysteen and Gen. John A.

President Roh Tae Woo asked South Koreans today to forgive his authoritarian predecessor, Chun Doo Hwan, who three days earlier made an emotional public apology for his abuses while in power. In an attempt to gain control over a volatile political situation, in which Roh has come under criticism because of direct ties between his administration and Chun's regime, Roh announced a package of democratic concessions and said he will soon reshuffle his government.