CIA-RDP96-00788R000300030016-4

Approved For Release 2006/12/19 : CIA-RDP96-00788R000300030016-4
THE WASHINGTON POST
Thursday, September 4, 1980
A 33.
New Leaders in Seoul Exploit General Yearning for Stability
By William Chapman
Washington Post Foreign Service
SEOUL-Chin Soon Ja, a 35-year-
old shopkeeper, is of two minds about
the wave of purges, arrests and more
subtle forms of repression that have
swept into every corner of life since
the South Korean military estab-
lished itself in absolute power last
May.
People are frightened by the arrests
and what she describes as "invisible
pressures" exerted by the govern-
ment, she says. But uppermost in
their minds, she thinks, is a desire for
economic stability after nearly a year
of turmoil and the advent of a severe
recession. Her sales are down 40 per-
cent from a year ago and have been
declining for months. "Actually, ordi-
nary people do not care much about
'politics," she adds. "What we want is
a better living."
The belief that what Koreans want
most is a dose of stability seems to
be widespread. It is a theme on which
the new government plays ; skillfully.
to justify its. tactics, For many aver-
age South Koreaas, it has a ring of
truth and helps them to swallow the
bitter political pills.
Their response calls to mind the
haunting phrase Walter Lippmann
once used to describe the acceptance
of fascist governments in depression-
ridden Europe during the 1920s and
30s. The people accepted shackles on
their wrists, Lippmann wrote, to keep
their hands from shaking.
For thousands of citizens; of course,
there has been no choice. Thousands
have been designated "hooligans" and :
marched off to reeducation camps.
Thousands of government. officials,
from top bureaucrats to lowly tax as-
sessors, have been purged. Rich peo-
ple are being forced to give up their
fortunes and businesses required to
fire or demote persons whose views
are unacceptable.
His employers were forced to seek
his resignation, he explained, but
were able to soften his punishment by
transferring him to a less important
position. Throughout the dinner, he:
cast wary glances over his shoulder
and fell silent when waiters hovered
nearby. What would he do with his
life now? "From now on, I shall keep
a very low profile," he said.
The low profile is the solution of
many. Dissidents who once sought out
foreign journalists to advance their
causes now do not return telephone
calls. Those who do give interviews
are swarmed over later by investiga-
tors who want to know what the re -.
porters sought to find out.
Government surveillance and at-k
Most respond with quiet resigna-
tion. One prominent professional man.
sat recently in a Seoul restaurant and
described his fate. He had worked
hard all his life, rising from a poor
family to attain national prominence
in his profession. He had been pri-
tempts at thought controis were facts
of life under the rule of the late presi-
dent, Park Chung Hee. What is differ-
ent now, under Chun Doo Hwan, is
the systematic character of the intru-
sions. Especially in its later years, the
Park government exhibited a some
what erratic and bumbling approach
vately critical of the new government -- to keeping citizens in- line, which
but by no means an enemy of the
state.
many mocked. Nobody mocks the cold
efficiency of the Chun
An example is the new application
of one of Park's favorite exercises, the".
saemaul, or "new community" move-
ment. Saemaul is a government rural
retreat at which businessmen and gov-
ernment leaders are expected to un-
dergo periodic spiritual renewal ses-
sions heavily laced with propaganda.
In Park's era, many prominent people
scoffed at those sessions as boring
and refused to attend.
No longer. The Ministry of Home
Affairs has announced that precisely
32,504 social leaders will undergo the
spiritual renewal lectures. No one
doubts that they will go. The chilling
thought is how the government de-y
cides that exactly 32,504 people need
their spiritual life and devotion to
country revitalized.
The purges, arrests, and other re-
prisals have extended into every seg-
ment of Korean society and have
ranged far beyond the political ene-
mies who once went in and out of
Park's jails with a revolving-door reg-
"ularity. Several of Park's own cronies"
have fallen victim to Chun's purges
and even one eccentric mystic thought
to have influenced Park's daughter is
«under house arrest.
Even popular music has not es-
caped. Twenty-four top entertainers
have been banned from television and
radio, their careers in ruins, for what
the newspapers described as "their in-
decent personal lives and debased
singing." At the top of the list, ironi-
cally, was a pop singer, Sim Su Bong
who had been one of Park's favorites
and in whose arms Park reportedly
died after being shot by an assassin in
a dining hall last October.
In none of these cases has the vic-
tim been permitted to defend himself
in a public hearing. The determina-
tion of guilt is made solely by military
investigators. People confess to "hoo-
liganism" or to amassing illicit wealth
to escape punishment worse than an
education camp or a surrender of as-
sets. A hearing process or public trial"
for all those singled out might take 20
years. The government has no time
for that, one government official ex-
plained.
The government's justification for
this widespread purification"
its
belief that under Park's waning rule a.
sense of corruption had come to per-
vade South Korean society, encour-
aged from the top by greedy businessa:
men and favor-selling bureaucrats ..
"Park had a soft spot for those around
him," said one highly placed official.
"and did nothing to punish them."
Another explanation is that Chun
and his military cronies needed a pop-
ular program to justify their own ac"
cession to power. A. government. offf-
cial agreed that in its early months!
the military junta was extremely uns
popular. Weeding out the big wheelers
dealers and the small-time punks)
called "hooligans" has a certain ap-
peal to the average Korean who puts
wi in an honest day's work and who has
never shared in the spoils of economic
growth. To him, purification may be a
fine idea.
"It's a good thing for a lot of people
to see them clean up on the hoodlums
and street gangsters," said Kim
Young Gil, a 41-year-old taxi driver
"The question is how long the drive
can go on before many of theny come '
back to resume their business.
Approved For Release 2006/12/19 : CIA-RDP96-00788R000300030016-4