kotaji 거타지

It is interesting - but perhaps already a cliche - to note how over the last decade or so the barricades have been reversed and police forces around the world have become experts in stacking shipping containers to protect places of power and privilege in the same way that the Parisian working class became experts in a similar art during the course of the 19th century.

Paris, June 1848

Seoul, June 2008 (source: OhMyNews)

Of course, one of the consequences of putting all your energy into protecting a centre of power (on this occasion protecting the presidential palace Chongwadae from an anti-government march hundreds of thousands strong) in such a way is that you effectively give up the rest of the city to the protesters. As a police force you also cause yourself other problems such as a lack of mobility. I experienced some of this when I took part in the first of the big beef protest marches on Thursday 29 May. Since the police had decided to take up a position ‘protecting’ the Kwanghwamun junction and other approaches to Chongwadae from the march using their buses, they had blocked themselves in and could go nowhere else. This gave the march the freedom of the city and we wandered apparently aimlessly for a couple of hours, taking over the central streets and no doubt causing traffic chaos. And as I write this, the sea of candle bearing protesters some 500,000 strong has begun to march away from the police barricades, refusing, for the time being to confront directly the metal wall thrown up hastily by the powers that be to protect themselves.

Another consequence is that protesters are able to use the barricades themselves for expressions of protest and humour:

Seoul, June 2008 (source: OhMyNews)

Palestine, 2005 (www.banksy.co.uk)

The final part of my look back over British newspaper coverage of the June Struggle. I think on balance I was more impressed with David Watts’ coverage in the Times than Jasper Becker’s in the Guardian. Watts managed to convey more of a keen sense of the action on the ground and his understanding of Korean society seems good too. I really wonder whether there would be coverage of this quality in the British papers if these events were happening now. Journalism has changed quite a lot in the last 20 years and in the UK international coverage seems to have been hollowed out in particular. I haven’t done an exhaustive search, but as far as I can see there has been nothing in either the Times or the Guardian to mark the anniversary. Which is somewhat surprising when you consider that back in 1987 the story was big enough for the papers to cover it almost every day and to devote a number of leaders to it.

Below are three articles from the last day of June 1987 - another excellent piece from David Watts, this time reporting from Kwangju; a leader from the Guardian; and finally an in-depth article from Jasper Becker on the ‘two Kims’.

Grassroots bitterness that choked Chun regime
From David Watts in Kwangju
The Times, June 30 1987, Tuesday

The rice fields around Kwangju have turned a rich green with the new crop and the stolid houses contribute to an air of well-being. But beneath the surface is an unrest felt as deeply as in the big cities of South Korea.

In no small measure it led to Sunday’s extraordinary statement from the South Korean Government that it had decided to cede to opposition demands for political change.

The Government decision springs from a complex of pressures.

Perhaps among the most important but less easily quantified elements were American pressure for change and the bad worldwide media image being built up which could easily have damaged the country’s chances of staging the Olympic Games.

The loss of the Olympics would have been such a blow to national pride, international prestige and the never-ending contest with North Korea, that it would have taken years to recover.

In the countryside the juxtaposition of apparent wealth and dissatisfaction confirms the notion that it takes more than an annual growth in gross national product - already in double figures - to satisfy a people so industrious and politically sophisticated that they have built their country into an economic power that threatens Japan in some sectors.

Kwangju has been a centre of opposition to the Government of President Chun Doo Hwan since some of his best troops gunned down hundreds of their fellow Koreans so that he and his fellow generals could stay in power.

That has never been forgotten, but in the countryside it was the day-to-day methods used to maintain the influence of the Democratic Justice Party that rankled.

The farmers of a small township about 40 miles into rice country warn that there must be nothing to identify them or the place as we talk over Ginseng Tea in a small tea shop.

Most farmers cannot subsist on their rice crop alone so they grow strawberries and corn for the big cities. For those with small plots, who make up about 50 per cent of the community, there are difficulties getting loans if they are not supporters of the Government. And that is important with many of the locals heavily in debt and struggling just to educate their children.

‘We see people from the ruling party living better than others so we want a change .. If you have a relative working with the Government and you support the opposition he’ll get a visit from an official warning him that he’ll lose his job if you don’t stop supporting them. ‘

Support for student demonstrators has been strong and often the students help their farming families with money from part-time jobs. In recent times three students from the area have been arrested for anti-Government activities. A young girl who served a year in jail for anti-Government activities came out to find that she could get no work at all because her identity as a criminal had been circulated. She is now reduced to shuttling between friends in Seoul and Kwangju while the Government watches her for evidence of further malfeasance.
(more…)

The final government cave-in came right at the end of the month. As I mentioned before, the role of ‘the provinces’ is interesting here. It seems from David Watts’ report in the Times that the unrest in provincial cities, and Kwangju in particular, was decisive in focusing the mind of Chun and his supporters. Seven years after the brutal events of May 1980, rather than a cowed, submissive city, Kwangju was once again in the frontline of the struggle against the dictatorship.

Chun’s party says it will seek free direct elections: Opposition in South Korea wins important concessions from a position of strength
From David Watts
The Times, June 29 1987, Monday

Forced on to the defensive by serious unrest in the provinces, the ruling Democratic Justice Party (DJP) of President Chun Doo Hwan announced concessions to the opposition early today in which they promised the free presidential elections demanded by the opposition.

The DJP will also urge President Chun to allow an amnesty for the leading dissident, Mr Kim Dae Jung, and the immediate release of most political prisoners.

Though clashes in the capital during Friday’s peace march were serious enough, it became clear later that government forces had been unable to control parts of the southern city of Kwangju. Disturbances in other areas were also serious.

The Government claimed a victory in Seoul, the capital, with massive policing and heavy tear-gas barrages, but the National Council of Churches said that more than a million people took to the streets across the country.

The police, however, claimed that fewer than 60,000 people took part in 37 cities and counties. There were 3,467 detentions, but a generally lower level of violence with protesters trying not to give the Government any pretext for stronger measures.
(more…)

Pitched battles returned to the streets of Seoul on June 26th as the students and opposition rejected the somewhat vague peace offerings of Chun Doo-hwan over the previous days. Jasper Becker describes the scenes on the streets of Seoul while The Times gives us the lowdown on South Korea’s super tear gas, apparently “a formidable cocktail of 12 secret ingredients” (sounds a bit like KFC).

Battle for Seoul at new pitch: Opposition calls for ‘democracy now’ as Chun muzzles its leaders
From Jasper Becker
The Guardian, June 27, 1987

Seoul yesterday became a battlefleld between tens of thousands of demonstrators wreathed in clouds of tear-gas and massed ranks of riot police as the Democracy Movement returned to the streets after the failure of peace talks here earlier this week.

The demonstrators, calling for ‘democracy now,’ were responding to the call of Mr Kim Young Sam, leader of the main opposition party, to wage ‘an all-out campaign to meet the people’s demands. ‘

But 10 minutes after Mr Kim appeared outside his party headquarters, preparing to march behind a large South Korean flag towards City Hall, he was roughly manhandled into a waiting police van. Police drove him to the airport, where he was later released.

With considerable brusqueness, President Chun Doo Hwan ordered the return to house arrest of the other main opposition leader, Mr Kim Dae Jung, less than two days after it had been lifted.

After a week of calm the demonstrations were probably the largest this year but less violent than those of June 10, when the present wave of unrest began.

Anarchy reigned in sections of the capital as traffic stopped in front of students hurling rocks and firebombs amid exploding teargas canisters. Bus drivers blew their horns in support of the students, while passengers raised clenched fists and leaned out of windows, chanting Pukche [Tokchae?] Tado (down with the military dictatorship).
(more…)

The Guardian reports on the release of Kim Dae Jung from house arrest, while the Times takes its turn to offer a leader on the democracy struggle in South Korea. Compare and contrast with the Guardian’s leader from a few days before.

The other noteworthy sentence is this, which doesn’t really require much comment from me: “Nor are the Americans likely to replace their client [!] quite as summarily as they did in the Philippines.”

Chun frees opponent from house arrest
From Jasper Becker
The Guardian, June 25, 1987

The South Korean government lifted the house arrest of its most feared opponent, Kim Dae Jung late last night, after an unprecedented meeting between President Chun Doo Wan and Mr Kim Young Sam, the leader of the main opposition.

Six hundred police surrounding Mr Kim’s house since mid-April withdrew at midnight, and over 500 of his supporters rushed in to celebrate the victory.

Mr Kim Dae Jung, a former presidential candidate and a charismatic figure, was immediately placed under house arrest when the present crisis began.

In 1980, he was sentenced to death for inciting students to rise against the government. This was commuted to a 20-year suspended sentence, which has allowed the government to impose house arrest over 50 times since he returned from the United States in 1985.

Earlier in the evening, Mr Gaston Sigur, a top US official on a trouble-shooting mission from President Reagan, visited Mr Kim Dae Jung after holding talks with President Chun. No details of either meeting have been released, but Mr Sigur, who is under-secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, is urging both sides to make compromises.

President Chun did not, however, agree to restore Mr Kim Dae Jung’s civil rights during his meeting with Mr Kim Young Sam.
(more…)

Monday June 22 was the day that Chun’s grip on power began to crumble as he realised that he would have to make some concessions. Such an important event was this that the Guardian actually devoted one of its leading articles to the issue on Tuesday. In the Times, David Watts gave an overview of the developing political situation, including a short phone interview with Kim Dae Jung, then under house arrest.

Leading Article: Chun can’t turn the tide
The Guardian, June 23, 1987

Nearly two weeks of mass demonstrations in the streets and universities of South Korea have obliged President Chun Doo Hwan to meet the first demand of his opposition. He is to have direct talks this week with one of the divided opposition’s leaders, Kim Young Sam, and the agenda has on it much of what Kim wants to talk about.

Some fairly outspoken comment from the United States has clearly been needed to bring President Chun to this position, and a State Department emissary is due in Seoul today, no doubt bearing in his attache case a potted history of the Philippines. The analogy is inevitable but, as usual in comparing one country with another, misleading. The Philippines had been an economic failure. South Korea has been an outstanding success. Marcos was autocratic, corrupt and friendless; Chun can be fairly accused only on the first count. Even then he can plead in mitigation that he was trying to arrange the first transfer of power since the republic was founded in 1948 which did not involve a coup or an assassination. He misjudged, though, the political temper of the country which he and his autocratic forerunners have done so much to advance economically. It wants free elections to the presidency, not a collegiate system which can be rigged to perpetuate the power, however well-intentioned, of a dynasty of self-perpetuating generals.

The idea of staging next year’s Olympics at Seoul was, from South Korea’s viewpoint, to demonstrate that the country had served its time in the development chrysalis and was now fully winged to take flight with other democratic nations. If President Chun, General Roh, and the two Kims can so arrange an overhaul of the constitution and a relaxation of press censorship that the country does emerge as intended by next year, then the rejoicing will not be confined to the Games community. The South Koreans have already won the gold for their prodigies of development. Its people look for at least a bronze in democracy.

Just as the changes now being demanded fall far short of revolution, so the government which has been so strenuously opposing them is not a stereotype dictatorship. It lives in constant anxiety about how its unlovely neighbour to the North may profit from any reforms, and so is over-inclined to look upon demonstrators as unwitting, even witting, pawns of Kim Il Sung. It must indeed be hard in Seoul to see events to which the government is necessarily central in the required perspective. South Korea has won all the attributes of a self-confident economy. Why can it not be allowed to show that self-confidence in political and social matters? It is not only college radicals who ask the question but the sober-sided middle classes who have seen a century of change in a couple of decades. Some suspect that President Chun’s strategy is to prolong the constitutional process and thus detach the professionals and the managers from the students. It is almost certainly too late in the day for such a hope to succeed. He may complain that the opposition does not have a coherent programme whereas he does. But the opposition is not a wild-cat body seeking to undo South Korea’s achievements. Repeat: this is not (or not yet) an incipient revolution, but it is a serious and unstoppable demand for reform.
(more…)

More on the US angle, this time from Jasper Becker and Mark Tram in the Guardian. What’s interesting to me about reading these reports of the rioting from the height of the struggle is how much of the actual violent action was taking place outside of Seoul. I think it’s a cautionary lesson for historians who might have a natural tendency to concentrate on what happened in the capital. It’s quite possible that the real decisive action was happening elsewhere. Another interesting element is the widespread nature of the protests - every major city was affected and reading these reports there is no sense of the ‘regionalism’ that become such a feature of Korean politics in the 1990s. Outside of Seoul, both the Cholla (Kwangju) and Kyongsang (Pusan) seem to have lead the way.

US tells Seoul not to impose martial law
From Mark Tram and Jasper Becker
The Guardian, June 22, 1987

The US State Department’s top official for Asian affairs, Dr Gaston Sigur, yesterday warned the Seoul Government against declaring martial law in South Korea. The warning came as the ruling party in Seoul hammered out a package of concessions which it hoped would mollify the opposition.

Dr Sigur spoke from Sydney, on his way to Seoul. He said: ‘We do not want to see the military involved. Martial law is not the proper approach. ‘

In public statements the US administration has urged the Seoul Government to reopen a dialogue with the opposition on moving the country towards democracy - a message Dr Sigur underlined again yesterday.

The ruling Democratic Justice Party (DJP) chairman, Mr Roh Tae Woo, is due today to try to persuade President Chun Doo Hwan to agree to the package of concessions at a meeting at the presidential Blue House.
(more…)

Koreans braced for brutal backlash: Americans are warned to lie low
Jon Swain
The Times, June 21 1987, Sunday

South Korea’s leaders were still considering imposing emergency measures yesterday, including a limited form of martial law, after 10 days of the most serious civil disturbances for years.

After students had commandeered a bus and rammed it at police lines on Friday, killing one policeman, it became clear that attempts to dampen anti-government sentiments were failing. For the first time, Buddhist demonstrators took to the streets in solidarity with the students.

Throughout the week support for the student revolt has steadily widened as members of the middle class, including bankers, businessmen and office workers, joined the demonstrations against the Chun regime.

All this intensified the challenge to President Chun Doo Hwan. Further clashes in the streets of Seoul this week will almost certainly trigger some form of military backlash.

The violent events in Seoul are of great strategic importance in the region. A stable South Korea is crucial to American interests in the Pacific. Throughout yesterday the American Armed Forces Network radio broadcast sombre warnings to Americans to exercise caution and to avoid large public gatherings and areas of demonstration. America has 40,000 troops in South Korea - a presence the Chun government regards as vital to the country’s survival but which many people resent.
(more…)

June 20 1987 was a Saturday and the UK papers seem to have suddenly turned their attention to the serious matter of… the Olympics, with both the Times and the Guardian producing articles with a focus on the possible consequences for the 88 Seoul games. Instead of those, here’s David Watts’ feature piece touching on everything from the Catholic Church, to the education system to the monarchy of the ‘Yi Dynasty’. Watts seems to have developed something of a strange obsession with the Korean middle class, which he claims makes up 78 percent of the population - although this seems to be a statistical impossibility to me. In true British fashion he also manages to bring up that old canard of the Magna Carta in his explanation of the Korean desire for democracy.

Firebomb path to Seoul’s Olympic flame: Mass opposition to South Korea’s generals
David Watts
The Times, June 20 1987, Saturday

The South Korean government stands virtually paralysed after more than a week of student riots in which police have been pelted with stones and firebombs.

Student protects are an almost daily feature of life in South Korea but this time they are different. The violence demonstrates a frustration with President Chun Doo Hwan’s government that leaves scarcely any sector of society untouched. The Korean word for it is han, accumulated frustration, and for many Koreans it has been building up since 1961, when the late Park Chung Hee, then head of the ruling military junta, told his people that democracy would follow a brief period of strong central government.

The opposition in the universities, in sections of the Christian church and now the middle class talks of revolution. It is the combination of the middle class and the church which could throw the country into what would be a bloody civil war if there is no response to their demands.

The middle class, to which 78 per cent of Koreans now belong, rarely curses the students for disrupting business or mouthing slogans sympathetic to North Korea. They hang out of upstairs windows to applaud or harangue the government’s hapless militia on the streets. Bus-loads of office workers returning home sing the national anthem as they pass equally packed buses full of riot police. The middle class, once guarantors of stability, are now among the government’s strongest critics. The potent political mixture President Chun now faces does not yet include many workers but the rest is more than enough to cause serious concern for the stability of his government.

Beyond the sea-change in the middle class there is a student movement now willing to moderate its public rhetoric to include political demands which it believes will broaden its support. There is a Roman Catholic Church willing to say publicly through Cardinal Stephen Kim that the government has lost its popular support.
(more…)

Just a short one this time for Friday 19 June, the day it all started to go really wrong for Chun and his police as the masses joined the students in earnest. Again, I think that David Watts’ reporting gives a really vivid picture of the scene, especially the fighting around the Bank of Korea.

Police take a beating in Korean violence - Countrywide unrest marks ninth day of protests by students
David Watts
The Times, June 19 1987, Friday

Violent protests erupted from one end of South Korea to the other yesterday, involving tens of thousands of students and countless civilians in the ninth day of rioting.

Tens thousand rioted and hundreds of taxi drivers demonstrated in Pusan, where 300 students are occupying a Catholic centre for the fourth day. With 6,000 involved in Kwangju, some 3,000 in Inchon, and more in Taejon, the violence shows no sign of slackening. But yesterday Seoul saw the worst of the clashes as thousands of ordinary Koreans massed to help the students.

The government, which has made no comment since its warning to a week ago, hinted yesterday at a new line that would ‘avoid emergency measures’, according to early editions of today’s newspapers in Seoul. The palliatives being considered include an offer of resumption of negotiations on possible revisions to the constitution which President Chun had postponed until after the 1988 Olympics.

The newspapers quoted Mr Roh Tae Woo, who has been designated President Chun’s successor, as saying: ‘From now on I will take the initiative in coping with political developments regarding the constitution matter. ‘ Whether such manoeuvres will have any real effect on the students remains to be seen.

More universities and colleges have closed early for the summer holidays, postponing indefinitely their final examinations with no noticeable effect on the level of dissent.

Students detect the weakness of the government’s position. They turned central Seoul into a battleground, with two great plumes of thick, black smoke rising over the Bank of Korea to mark the turmoil.

The students, now quite fearless and strengthened by the cheers and applause from the crowds, isolated two groups of 30 policemen. They beat them fiercely and threw their riot shields and tear gas on to a bonfire. Other riot police moved in to try to make a defensive shield, but in vain. The terrified police staggered away, one clutching his head.

Stones, spent tear-gas canisters and the great white smears left by tear gas marred the tarmac in front of the neo-Gothic bank. Around the square men and women huddled against the walls, their eyes streaming from the gas. The women cried or screamed, one bleeding from her ankle; the men roared with rage and frustration.

Traffic was paralysed for more than an hour around Seoul station where students made another pyre of police equipment. Oily smoke and tear gas wreathed the building and no trains moved.

The opposition had declared yesterday ‘anti-tear gas day’. The government’s response was the heaviest barrage of shells Seoul has seen. It started in the afternoon as old women arrived to join the demonstration pleading for an end to use of tear gas at a Seoul Presbyterian church.

T-shirts bearing the slogan ‘No more tear-gas’ in Korean sold fast, and on every balcony of the 10-storey Christian Broadcasting Service building protesters and loud-speakers chanted ‘Down with the constitution’ or ‘No more tear gas’. A hundred yards away thousands of young people sat down to block an entire main street as elsewhere snatch squats of plainclothes police darted into crowds to grab individual protesters.