Democracy Without Dissent in Korea

...They ask me not to attend meetings and not to make trouble," said Mrs Kim, smiling "I am not making any trouble I am just going to see relatives " She did not hesitate to talk about Kim, consigned to a cell in an otherwise empty cell-block in Chongju, a town some80 miles south of here President Chun Doo Hwan commuted Kim's original death sentence to life imprisonment last year, prior to leaving for Washington to be the first foreign head of state to call on the Reagan White House Lastweek.onthe anniversary of his inauguration, he further reduced the punishment as part of a large-scale clemency that does not appear to have actually released any prominent political offenders Given the 57-year-old Kim's current state of health, it is doubtful that he could survive 18 more years in solitary confinement "He is in constant pain,' said Mrs Kim, who had chatted with her husband through prison bars, under guard, tor 20 minutes, the time permitted by prison authorities A doctor had visited him a couple of weeks earlier and recommended an operation on his hip, injured at the time ot the 1971 presidential campaign in a motor vehicle "accident" that Kim believes was deliberate-ly staged In aides ol then President Park Chung Hee The fact that Kim still captured 46 per cent of the votes doubtless explains a great deal about his personal fate as well as that of democracy in South Korea Park and his entourage were frightened by the realization that Kim would probably have won an entirely fair election, and they never again risked a test where voters could cast ballots for their own presidential candidate Similarly, when Kim demonstrated his undiminished popularity upon his release from house arrest during the political thaw that followed Park's assassination by the chief ot the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCI A) in October 1979, Park's successors recognized the danger of letting Kim challenge them politically The Chun regime's treatment of Kim, as recounted by his wife, is extraordinary testimonv to the tear of whatever he might do it given the slightest opportunity, even from prison He must sleep on the floor ot his mix cell watched by three guards in the daytime and two at night, said Mis Kim, andean haidh move sometimes when he tries to act up In addition, she said, he suffers from an ear ailment that results in a constant ringing sound—usually the only noise he hears in his special cell A loyal aide working dutifully in an office across the courtyard of Kim's home, near the roaring streets of downtown Seoul, indicated that Kim's family and friends continue to hope the U S will intervene on his behalf, perhaps on medical grounds "We are not asking the U S for anything," said the aide "We are just hoping " Mrs Kim has based her appeal for medical help abroad in part on her fear that her husband would be deliberately mistreated in a Korean hospital "Several times the government has tried to kill him when he was in hospitals," she said " I request he be allowed to have a foreign doctor"—if possible, in a foreign country She recalled that her husband had his worst hospital ordeal in 1977-78, when he spent a year under guard "for medical treatment" after having been imprisoned for signing a petition against Park in 1976 "They sent him to the hospital from prison as an excuse to hold him longer," she said "They released the others who had been in prison with him " The Chun government has not responded to Mrs Kim's pleas Privately, officials said they believed the Kim case was "forgotten" and indicated little real prospect of leniency Mrs Kim has reason to believe, though, in her husband's capacity to survive He underwent his most frightening single experience in July 1973, when KCIA agents kidnapped him from his room in Tokyo's Grand Palace Hotel and hustled him back to Korea in the bottom of a boat Kim was then on his way to Harvard University, where the government feared he would find a ready pulpit for spreading hostile views He has managed to make peace with himself in jail after having been in the depths of depression a few months ago "Then he felt almost crazy,' his wife reports " He said he had never imagined such a shameful, painful life He asked why God kept him alive " A Roman Catholic, Kim seeks sustenance in prayer, he keeps a picture of Christ in his cell and regularly reads the Bible, one of the books the authorities have permitted Mrs...

...THE PLIGHT OF KIM DAE JUNG Democracy Without Dissent in Korea BY DONALD KIRK SEOUL TWO DETECTIVES were bowing themselves politely from the home of Mrs Kim Dae Jung as she received yet another visitor She had returned only several hours earlier from a visit to her husband, tormerly South Korea's leading opposition politician He is now serving a 20-year prison term tor his role in the student-led riots of May 1980, including the bloody revolt in kwangju near his birth-place on the soutwestern coast...

...Kim to bring him...

...He's not very happy," she said, "but he's not so unhappy either " Mrs Kim keeps attempting to win minor concessions from the authorities She has asked them to let her husband wnte her more than once a month, to give him some paper and pens to jot down some memoranda based on his reading, and to let his secretary and other associates wnte him letters besides the ones she sends him daily So far, she said, she has won extra" visits on Chnstmas Eve and on Kim's birthday in January "Of course, I couldn't bnng him presents,' she said, laughing at my question, "but I bring him clothes from time to time " In her latest visit, she went on, "he also asked me to bring a large bath towel The towel he now has is large enough only for a baby " He needed the large towel in the winter, she explained, to warm his injured leg, painfully cramped after bathing Mrs Kim hopes the authorities will let him have physiotherapy in pnson if they refuse to send him to a hospital With just half an hour of exercise a day outside his cell, she fears that his muscles will hopelessly weaken Throughout her remarks, though, there was almost no sign of despair "We believe that God will give him another chance," shesaid "He has suffered much, so I think his situation must improve " WHILE last week's move demonstrates the government's desire to polish its political image in time for the 1986 Asia Games, and beyond that the 1988 Seoul Olympics, most other signs show suppression of dissent to be intensifying Reinforcing authority on the home front and maintaining respectability among Western democracies is a difficult task But the Reagan Administration's not protesting crackdowns on human rights here has made it easier for Chun, who no longer has to contend with threats of 40,000 U S troops guarding against attack from the Communist North being withdrawn Nonetheless, the principles Kim Dae Jung has persisted in fighting for endure against seemingly insuperable odds, and his supporters ultimately expect to win adherents among discontented workers usually fearful of bucking authority on their own In fact, dissidents are waging a quiet campaign for higher wages and better working conditions, even though a harsh new law stipulates prison terms for those convicted of "intervention" in labor disputes by encouraging workers to strike or protest Dissident sources tell of a series of minor strikes and demonstrations here and in the port city of Inchon, and of largely unreported arrests of workers and organizers "Factory managers dismiss people who talk about strikes," said a Protestant clergyman , advising workers on their rights in an industrial district in Seoul "The managers say they're not making enough money and will have to shut down if workers sit down on the job " The hostile mood of Korean workers confronts the Chun regime with its most serious problem as the nation begins a new five-year plan aimed at raising the gross national product 7-8 per cent a year The question is how—or whether—Chun can placate the workers sufficiently to forestall the kind of riots that preceded Park's death in the factory cities of Pusan and Masan "The basic situation is getting worse," said another Chnstian clergyman "The prices keep going up whenever we go to the market Government statistics mean nothing The economy seems beyond the power of the regime " Chun himself publicly acknowledged the danger when he cited "the need to dispel the deep-seated inflationary psychology" in a speech before the National Assembly in late January The trouble, according to Chun's opponents, is that he hopes to achieve that goal as much by tough tactics as by measures designed to alleviate underly-ing causes "The police now are stronger than they were under Park," said one of Chun's many anonymous critics "They keep watch on us all the time They listen to our telephones We can do nothing without being followed " Given these circumstances, dissidents dismiss as "completely cosmetic" Chun's decision at the start of the year to do away with the midnight to 4 a m curfew Koreans have lived with from the end of Japanese rule in August 1945, and to relax the codes on dress and hairstyles for high school students "Chun issued those orders to impress foreigners," said a religious worker "They really mean nothing in the daily lives of the people "The new amnesty is seen in a similar light With wages rising at a pace slightly below the annual inflation rate of at least 12 per cent, another hard truth is that the average Korean in effect must subsidize what Chun has called the "second takeoff for an economy that suffered severe setbacks in the turbulent year after Park was killed Salaries equal to approximately $200 a month are about average for workers in the labor-intensive electronics, textiles, machinery, footwear, and shipbuilding industries on which planners are placing their hopes for full "recovery " "The heavy work makes many workers want to leave their jobs," said a dissident organizer, "but the intensity of police pressure is now much more severe than before, so to be involved in a labor movement means to risk being assassinated or eliminated by authorities " It was evidently to set an example for would-be dissidents that the government recently charged 26 workers and students with membership in pro-Communist groups In January the "ringleader," 30-year-old Lee Tae Bok, was sentenced to life imprisonment Lee had published Korean-language versions of supposedly "Marxist" books But his worst offense, in the view of prosecutors, was trying to set up a "Democratic Workers' Federation" with the intention of defying the laws against strikes and staging other forms of protest "Lee had the idea of activating the workers and enhancing their political consciousness, said one of his associates "He himself worked at a tactorv tor several months He befriended workers who had been labor leaders and were his co-dctendants " Possiblv the greatest threat presented by Lee was his fusing the workers' and students' movements, as Kim Dae Jung had been on the verge of doing in the student-led riots of 1980 Government officials feararepe-tition of the riots when students return to school after the long winter break this spring, traditionally the time for demonstrations on South Korean campuses (Park Chung Hee rose to power in 1960 on a tidal wave of similar demonstrations ) "Most of the workers are afraid to do anything," said a girl on the assembly hneof an electronics factory "They are too afraid of losing their jobs and not having enough money to support their families " As in the past, though, the workers could gain the courage they need if enough students support them, and the economy worsens The specter of hot-blooded students joining with discontented workers, observed a foreign diplomat, remains "Chun's biggest nightmare and a very real danger " THE THREAT of explosion appears especially pronounced because Chun has cut off virtually all outlets for more than pro forma opposition, his desire to convince foreigners that democracy really exists here notwithstanding More than 500 one-time opposition politicians are banned from participating in politics, while as many as a thousand languish in jail—albeit not under the same severe conditions imposed on Kim "Now nobody can do anything,' said Kim Young Sam, who succeeded Kim Dae Jung as leader of the New Democratic Party before he was placed under house arrest at the height of the riots in May 1980 "People should enjoy political freedom so the economy mav develop The government should be chosen by the people At that point the people should support it " An affluent businessman, Kim relaxed on a cushion on the floor beneath autographed photographs of himself with President Carter, Senator Edward M Kennedy and Ronald Reagan when he was governor of California "I met them all on trips to the United States," he said "They used to tell me we had to sacrifice a little freedom for the sake of a greater freedom—freedom from Communism I do not think, however, that you can separate these freedoms " Korean officials insist that they encourage opposition groups and espouse Western-style democracy, even though the New Democratic Party has long since been outlawed "We have to change attitudes in such a way that we can sustain democratic development," saidaspokes-man for Chun's Democratic Justice Party, founded in mid-1980, about the time the then major general propelled himself into the presidency under a revised constitution "We have to channel aspirations into the political process " That kind of talk has little meaning to a people now averaging the world's longest work week?53.8 hours for women and 52.8 hours for men, according to the Geneva-based International Labor Organization "The government is more and more afraid of spontaneous activity among workers," said a labor organizer "The government is eager to crush the roots of our underground activities We think if we continue, there will be strikes and struggles on a large scale " Would Kim Dae Jung once more emerge as the unifying figure for rebellious students and workers...

...It seems hardly possible that he could again surface, despite his capacity for somehow extricating himself from the efforts of two successive military leaders to destroy him Nevertheless, in prison, silent, unable to communicate with anyone other than his wife, he remains a symbol—and a constant reminder to Koreans in and out of power of the existence of an opposition as dedicated as any in eastern Europe or Latin America Reports of the routine use of torture to extract confessions from political prisoners underline the government's determination to annihilate the dissidents—and their willingness to sutter for what they believe Mrs Kim smiled when asked her view of the present regime, then ventured a question as she contemplated her husband's situation "I just wonder "she said, which kind of democrat has such treatment DONALD KIRK, a longtime NL contributor, is a freelance journalist currently reporting from the Far East...