Approved For Release 2006/12/19
: CIA-RDP96-00788R000300030016-4
if
New Leaders in
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
isf
- a better living.”
%
The belief that what Koreans want
.
pnost
is
a dose
of stability
seems
to
tbe widespread. It is a theme on which
the n ew
government.: plays
skillfully
'
..
to justify its, tactics. For
manl[y
; aver-
'age South Koreans,
it has
a/riiog 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.
Most respond
with
quiet
resigna-f;
tion. One prominent professional man ;
sat recently in a Seoul restaurant
jantf
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-
vately critical of tbe new government
but hy no means an enemy
of
tin*
state.
s-
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
hi's 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
iit
foreign
journalists
to
advance
their V
causes now
do not
return
telephone f
calls. Those who
do
give
interviews
are swarmed over
later by investiga-S
tors who want to know what the re-
porters sought to find out.
f
Government
surveillance
and
at-h
tempts at thought controls were facts S
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, r
to
keeping-
citizens
in
line,
which
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-v
rides
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^bronies
have
fallen
victim
to Chun’s purges
and even one
trie mysfe thpught
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,
iron!-,
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
“Jibo-J
liganism” or to amassing
illicit wealth'
to escape punishment worse
than fan
education camp or
a surrender 6^|as-
sets. A hearing process or’ public Mai
for all those singled out might taka 20
years. The
government
has
no
tMhe
tar
that,
one
gojvfcrojment
offidadlex-
. plained.
..|j |t
r
•
;
'
|
||H
The
government's- justificatta^Jpor
t||$/wi
ijgfl its
^belief that under Park’s waning ruIe-.%
%* sense of corruption had come to per- f
Mvade
South Korean
society,
encour-
aged from the top by greedy business?;
men
and
favor-selling
bureaucrats*/-
X
“Park had a soft spot for those around,
him,” said one highly placed
officials
“and did nothing to punish them.”
.*
Another
explanation
is
that. Chun
and his military cronies needed a pop-
ular program
to justify
their own
cession
to power. A government
dffr-
'
.
rial agreed
that in
its
early months-
.
the military junta was extremely tog
popular. Weeding out the big wheelriM?
dealers
and
the
small-time
pufikB 7
.
called “hooligans”
has
a
certain -ap- A
peal
to the average Korean who
puts*
;
in an honest day’s work and who ha^
’
yX never shared in the spoils of economic.
• /growth. Tq him, purification may hem
f Tine idea.
'
:
;
'
,
;
/
“It’s a good thing for a lot of people
To see them clean up on the hoodlum*
and
street
gangsters,”
said
Kim
*
Young jGil,
a
4Lyear-old
t$xi
“The’ question isi.'how Jopg; thei-dj^v^.
-
golonl before maiiY^
Approved For Release 2006/12/19
: CIA-RDP96-00788R000300030016-4