_Hieir
criticism
of
the
United
States k rooted
in a sense of be-
trayaL South Koreans are steeped
mtte
hierarchical conceptions
of
tofoopusai, and in their view the
rote of respected authority figure
the United States took on fourdec-
ades ago meant
that
hi return for
the loyalty of people here their in-
terests
would
be
protected.
The
rage now
feic by some South Ko-
[,
e?f
from th«r perception
that
the
United
States
actually
worked against the interests of the
Korean people by dividing the coun-
try and
supporting
dictators
and
mat it continues to do so today
sad -
bitter
as weU
as
sad.
Moon Kwan says. "They feel
by
*
***
For a generation. South Koreans
i
1™^a^-^hool textbooks extol-
L
V,r
'i
eS
of
the
United
Sates Moon Tong Hwan's Amer-
lan mfe. Faye Moon, recalled that
south Korean women used
to ask
f°r apple pie. The
Moon brothers even adopted west-
e™
while
in
the
United
.State
becoming Timothy and Ste-
ven Moon.
w"
1 ' was„
llke
a dream country*
Moon Ik Kwan recalled of his per-
C£pt“n
°f 'he
United
States,
“a
great
Christian
nation." He
lived
through the famous 1965 blackout
remembers how
ex-
traordinarily generous New York-
ers were as they helped each other
cope with the power failure. "Cour-
teous* -kind* -gentle - ami
scientrous
are some of the words
iLt?
‘°
descnbe
his
feelings
about Americans in that era.
The younger "Uofin "had
similar
impressions when he studied in the
U.a from 1951
to 1961 at several
seminaries. Still, he began to expe-
rience some uneasiness, even some
“its of racism,
although none
of
this
was
yet
strong
enough
to
change
his
pro-American
disposi-
tion, He recalled that when he be-
came engaged to an American wo-
man, a dose American friend told
h™'hat she would have been op-
posed to his marrying her daughter
Americans were kind to roe, but
I was always kept at arm's length,*
Moon Hwan said in an interview at
h;s home. His wife, Faye, nodded in
agreement. The sound of American
music wafted into the room from a
stereo turned on by one of
their
Children, who have Korean names
and speak both Korean and English
An anti-American poster hangs on a
A
Presbyterian
deacon,
Faye
Moon, speaks fluent Korean and is a
social activist who counsels, among
others
Korean
prostitutes
who
serve U.S. soldiers. For nearly nine
years
the 1970s. she was an aT
coho! and drug-rehabilitation eoun-
setor for the U.S. military in Seoul
hhe now laughs about the irony of
havrng worked -for the [U.S.1 gov-
ernment
that was supporting the
dictator that was keeprng „,y hus_
band in jad ’
After spending about eight years
the
Bible intoVrSm
Moon Ik Kwan joined his brother in
opposition politics in the mid-1970s
but his dispute was chiefly with the
generals
ruling South
Korea,
not
with the United States. The turning
Kbrea^T
Moons”"i,s for most
Koreans now critical of the United
States—was the 1980 Kwangju up-
using, in which more than 200 peo-
ple were
killed when the military
government
of Chun
Doo Hwan
sent troops into the provincial cap-
ital to put down a student-led rebel-
lion against the regime.
At the outset of the crisis. Moon
Kwan was accused of helping plot a
revolution and jailed. He was pris-
oner
number
202,
and
the
re-
nowned opposition leader Kim Dae
Jungiras number 201. While in jail.
Moon Kwan learned of the Kwangju
deaths and of the allegations— ta-
ken
as fact by students and
dissi-
U S- mffibny mas-
terminded the suppression
of the
uprising.
wwhi i?
e flrst time
1 was able to
see the Korean problem in an inter-
rational context,* Moon Kwan said
Park Ch™S Hee,
Chun Doo Hwan-to me, they had
been the enemies. But all of a sud-
den I realized that America and Ja-
ran are pn|llng
alI Ihe stnnKS ^
hmd them.
.
. America knew what
‘“P^ta’8 P»
Kwangju)
and
mV-T
n
;,“
,
|L That was shatter-
^
°f Kmn®u - Moon
dreamt
aWake"ed from the
Moon Hwan was traveling in Eu-
rope When
the
Kwangju
incident
occurred m May 1980, and was un-
able to return to South Korea be-
a
. warrant had been
issued
here for Ms arrest. Instead, he went
exile and
n
t
lte
SUtes as a pol"Ki‘l
exile and tried to arouse interest in
the human-rights abuses committed
by Chun s martial-law regime
But Moon Hwan said he was ig-
J™
1 by tde Washington establish-
ment mid shouted down by ordinary
Americans during a speaking tour in
™4o<tmmrs
Complaints
In S. Korea
MOON IK KWAN
•••
I was 10 naive” about America
which
he
criticized
U.S.
policy
“Ttev
h*
recounted,
they
said.
We sent our boys
to
htethat
' ThJ.
a "d “w you apeak
,
Ttay were furious. Thev
-ra.tatfcten.PeoptestrxxiupanS
and
u'Smaymg experience,
rad Moon Hwan
left
the
United
^eren
f
?
rJWme
c
i" 1985 with vasfly
different ideas than when he ended
fra previous sojourn
in 1961. "For
us Koreans,
it's
foolish
to expect
a?ytbin« for us^d
democracy,
he
said.
-The
|U.b.| government handles the
sit-
uation according to the interests of
are
concerned
only
ataut themselves.
.
.
.
It
is hope-
MOON TONG HWAN
••
1 admired America for a while”
forbftxm Hwan,
there
is
the
^competing family
loyalties.
Maybe
it
is because
I
“amed an American; this has made
America my second nation,* he said
For hB son in the U.S. Air Force.
America
is a
first ration, and
this
to
pain Moon Uwan. He
tried to persuade his son not to join,
but he insisted because being an Air
For“
P'Iot was the
only my he
could
fulfill his dream of becoming
an astronaut.
*
easT^Ic^
de
r
ire'" Moon aaid un-
easily
I cannot force him. We tried
to help him see differently, but he
Stuck to the idea*
their
Prerant sympa-
thies
the Moons and their country
remain
tied
to
America.
Sfc£
Kwan
still has some yellowed
pic-
tures of himself dressed
in a U S
onT„
y
,h
n,fT'
a"d he pbns »° bold
on to them because “that was part
m™
6:
h
cannot
,hrow ,hem
out.
Moon Hwan expects his pilot
son
to settle
in America, and
his
cCforty
Ugh,era,sofeek '"Pre
comfortable in an American rather
than South Korean environment, he
Moon Hwan
prefers South Ko-
rea, but he has promised his wife
Paye tbat °"“ be retires from pol-
« cs they will return to the United
bvesfthere/
spend 'be rest of our
8. KOREA, From A 16
South Korean reaction to Bush's
visit showed how even well-inten-
tioned gestures can go awryinthe
current climate of trade
tensions
and
rising nationalism here. U S
officials,
fearing
South
Koreans
would feel Slighted
if Bush visited
Ch 'm °" b's
trip.
?dded ^ bnef «op in Seoul. But
today, the media repeatedly point-
5ionL
that
hS *as making
‘be
ident *
V1S,t eVer by a US - pres-
Bush met opposition leader Kim
Dae Jung, a former political prison-
er and dissident who for years was
shunned by even the U.S. ambas-
sador. Kim spent most of the meet-
ing lecturing Bush on the reuses of
anti-Americanism, citing U.S. trade
pressure as a key problem.
Even ruling party chairman Park
Jyun Kyu warned Bush about rising
rati-Americanism.
according
t0
South Korean officials who attended
the
private meeting between
the
president and major party leaders
Bush
acknowledged
worries
about anti-American sentiment, but
said ,t does not overly concern him,
y
tolg t0 the san"; sources. He
told the party leaders that he be-
lieves many South Koreans still re-
member
U.S.
sacrifices
in
the
1950-53 Korean War and that ex-
isting conflicts can be resolved
m
5rdl t0 the National. As-
sembly, Bush warned South Korea
not to give in to protectionism. The
legislators
listened
silently
to
Bushs
plea
for open
markets. A
dozen
opposition
legislators
boy-
cotted Bush’s speech.
°f
le
, U"S-
official said Bush suc-
SlS?
X
“fabhshmg
a
personal
totlTus™,
Roh and demon-
strating U S. commitment to keep
to troops here. "Given the brevity
l -
d,d
be bad to
do,
the official said.
who*!! u"!
S°Uth Korean
Politician
who asked not to be named said he
believed
the
visit
had contributed
to
illustrating
the
gulf
be-
i
i
ROH TAE WOO
planning political compromises
• turnington fast special
correspondent Peter Maass in Seoul
contributed to this report.
Approved For Release 2000/08/08
: CIA-RDP96-00789R00340056
6TDN
.
...
Wednesday, March 29, 1989 A19
Kim II Sung Sees S. Korean Dissident
Illegal Visit Represents Embarrassment to Government in Seoul
By Peter Maass
Special to The Washington Post
SEOUL,
March
28—A
South
Korean dissident’s illegal journey to
North Korea turned more contro-
versial
today
with
the
disclosure
that he has met President Kim
II
Sung, whose last reported meeting
with a South Korean was in 1972.
The visit to North Korea by dis-
sident leader Moon Hi Kwan, who
faces
arrest
once
he
returns
to
Seoul,
is breaking a number of ta-
boos, but the meeting with Kim
is
seen here as particularly explosive.
Visits to communist North Korea,
technically
still at war with South
Korea,
are banned except
in rare
cases.
According to North Korean press
reports monitored today
in
Seoul
and Tokyo,
the Princeton-educated
Moon and three travelTng compan-
ions were at a luncheon given yes-
terday by Kim, who discussed uni-
fication
issues
with
Moon.
The
press reports did not provide any
comments from Moon, 71, a Pres-
byterian
minister
who
hais"beeri
jailed often and is one of the father
figures of SoutK Korea’s dissident
movement.
Moon left South Korea early last
Week for Tokyo_and then traveled
to 'Beijing ,
where
the
North Ko-
feaSoepJrtelTy provided a special
pTarrtTto
fly him to Pyongyang on
i
Sgftffijay.
I ^He js expected to return to South
Korea
before
April
14, when
his
passport
expires.
He
reportedly
w|nts to return via Panrmmjom^he
truce
village
straddling
the
tense
Demilitarized Zone that has divided
the Korean peninsula since the war
ended in 1953.
Moon worked at Panmunjom, the
symbol of the peninsula’s division,
more than 3(T years ago as an inter-
preter
for
the U.S. Army during
truce talks with North Korea. He
was born in northern Korea but fled
south in the 1940s after his father
was persecuted by the communists.
Moon’s trip takes place at one of
the most volatile moments so far in
South Korea’s fragile transition to
democracy. Hard-liners in the mil-
itary and
in the government, wor-
ried about symptoms of social dis-
order,
are
pressing
conservative
President Roh .Tae Woo
to crack
down on dissent, and they are cer-
tain to redouble their efforts in the
wake of Moon’s meeting with Kim.
A small-scale crackdown already
has begun.
Police reportedly have
seized more than 3,000 copies of
pro-North
Korean
books
and
ar-
rested
publishers
in
raids
last
night.
In
a
possible
sign
of struggles
within the ruling camp, the govern-
ment announced a shuffle of 49 top
generals today, including the sack-
ing
of
a
three-star
general who
failed to salute Roh at a public cer-
emony last week. The general’s ac-
tion was
widely
interpreted
as
a
sign
of
the
unease
that
hard-line
generals are apparently feeling over
the political situation in South Ko-
rea. Today’s shuffle may be a bid to
move
troublesome
officers
out
of
the powerful military, although few
details were made available.
Moon’s meeting with Kim, shown
in a blurred photograph published in
South Korean newspapers
this
af-
ternoon, puts the government in an
embarrassing
position
because
of
its
new
policy
of
encouraging
friendlier ties with the North and
treating Pyongyang
as
a
partner
rather than an enemy. Earlier this
year,
the
government
permitted
Hyundai founder Chung Ju Young to
visit
North
Korea,
and
several
South Korean journalists have also
traveled
to
the
North,
although
none has met with Kim II Sung.
The
last
South
Korean whom
Kim is known to have met was Lee
Hyu Rak, then chief of the Korean
Central Intelligence Agency, who in
1972 made a secret trip to Pyon-
gyang that opened up a brief period
of detente. With the exception of
another brief thaw in 1985, the two
sides have had hostile relations.
Despite its new policy of opennes
to the North, the government here
has
banned
independent
contacts
because
it is afraid that North Ko-
rea will manipulate people such as
Moon to stir up political unrest and
undermine
its
authority.
Students
and dissidents oppose the govern-
ment ban, arguing that
if Roh can
state publicly, as he has, that he will
go anywhere at any time to meet
Kim
II Sung to promote reunifica-
tion, then they, too, should be
al-
lowed
to
seek
contacts
with
the'
North.
South Korea’s
intelligence com-
munity has come under fire for not
knowing in advance of Moon’s plans
to
visit
the
North
and
failing
to
block him from doing so.
Approved For Release 2000/08/08
: CIA-RDP96-00789R003400560003-1