Word: chun
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...specific target of the rising Korean protest is an electoral system under which the country's 41 million people choose more than 5,000 electors, who in turn select a President. Chun has suggested that the 1988 elections be held on schedule in the traditional fashion. The winner could then oversee a constitutional reform and direct elections in 1989. His opponents, who fear that Chun's hand-picked successor may renege on such an agreement, want constitutional reform now. Under pressure from Washington, Chun finally allowed the opposition to organize rallies to collect signatures of support for the proposed reform...
...deeper question at issue is how long and how easily democracy and dictatorship can live together. In some respects, Chun has eased his country steadily closer to freedom. The man in the Korean street no longer observes a midnight curfew, fears no sudden police raids and is able to travel abroad much more easily than before. Nonetheless, South Korea remains a virtual police state. The former general had hardly seized power when he pushed through martial law and placed many of his enemies under house arrest. To this day, the press is muzzled and the spreading of "black rumors" against...
...forces just across the demilitarized zone, poised for a quick strike. It built two new airfields from which its planes can reach Seoul in just eight minutes, and bought from the Soviet Union new SCUD B surface-to-surface missiles that can hit the South Korean capital. According to Chun, his country's enemies have already begun maneuvering to sabotage two big events on Seoul's calendar: the 1986 Asian Games, beginning in September, and the 1988 Summer Olympics. Oppositionists reply that the government is using the threat from the North as a pretext to stifle dissent. Both West Germany...
...average Korean, prosperity has bred a kind of contentment. "We do our best to bear Chun," says a businessman, "not because we love him but because we need political stability to keep our business surviving." Many Koreans remember that in 1979, after the assassination of Chun's predecessor, Park Chung Hee, the country suffered through a year of severe economic decline. Now they want to keep things steady...
Despite the large crowds that they can get into the street, the anti-Chun forces have increasingly lost a sense of unity and purpose. Last month Kim Young Sam hastily joined the N.K.D.P. as Lee's "permanent adviser" in the hopes of restoring direction to the party. But the opposition remains factious and agendaless, and many foreign observers suspect that it may be more interested in provoking dissent than in promoting democracy...