Approved For Release 2000/08/08
: CIA-RDP96-00789R003400560003-.1
Thf. Washington Post J y/s
South Korean Dissident Travels to Pyongyang
Illegal Trip Draws Threat of Punishment From Seoul Government
The crovemment has also deploye
By Peter Maass
Special to The Washington Post
SEOUL, March 26—South Ko-
rea’s
most
famous
dissident
has
begun an illegal visit to communist
North Korea and may be arrested
when he returns to the South, gov-
ernment officials said today.
Moon
Ik Kwan,
71,
reportedly
arrived in the North Korean capital
of Pyongyang yesterday via Tokyo,
marking the first time that a leading
South Korean dissident has visited
the northern city since the Korean
War ended in 1953. Visits there are
prohibited except in rare cases ap-
proved by the government.
Moon’s
visit,
which
apparently,
surprised officials here, dominated
news broadcasts and drew a quick
•
and harsh response from the gov-
ernment. [A senior South Korean
prosecutor was quoted by state ra-
dio Sunday
as
saying
that Moon
would
face
legal
action
under
a
tough anticommunist law that car-
ries a maximum penalty of death,
Reuter reported.]
. Though the South and the.North
are
still technically at war, South
Korean
President Roh Tae Woo
said
last
year
that
Pyongyang
should be viewed as a partner, not
as an enemy, and he proposed wide-
ranging
exchanges.
Negotiations
ta,
A
e
yfrSutl^Wyr.«
a
i
MOON IK KWAN
. . may be arrested in South Korea
relations
with North Korea
have
become the focus of intense discus-
sions among many South Koreans,
who for decades were legally pro-
hibited from talking about the sub-
ject
and who
have
expressed
a
strong desire for reunification.
Seoul, with the consent
of the
main opposition parties, has prohib-
ited
dissidents
and
militant
stu-
dents—who have
criticized Roh’s
efforts
as
being
insincere
and
weak—from setting up
their own
channels of contact with the North.
Officials have
said they
fear
that
independent
talks
or
exchanges
could undermine their authority and
be manipulated by North Korea to
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The government has also deployed
police to block illegal prounification
marches to the border. [Authorities
deployed
thousands
of
riot
troops
throughout Seoul on Sunday to end
antigovernment protests by
radical
groups, The
Associated
Press
re-
ported. No incidents were reported
in Seoul but students were reported
to have clashed with
riot
police
in
two southern provincial cities.]
Seoul’s
political
reforms
include
allowing
the
circulation
of
some
books,
photographs
and
movies
about
North
Korea—all
strictly
banned until a year ago. The govern-
ment has also allowed firms here to
trade openly with the North, and ear-
lier
this year permitted Chung Ju
Young,
founder
of
the
Hyundai
Group, to visit Pyongyang, where he
agreed to help develop a tourist area.
The
visit by the Princeton-edu-
cated Moon, however, goes beyond
j
the bounds of what the government
is willing to tolerate. Moon grew up
in northern Korea but fled south in
the 1940s after his father, a Pres-
byterian minister, had been jailed
twice by the communists.
Moon,
frequently
jailed
in
the
South during the 1970s and
’80s,
was
invited
to Pyongyang
earlier
this year to participate in talks that
North Korea proposed between po-
litical leaders from each side. The
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