Word: pak
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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From the back of the crowded, floodlit assembly room in Seoul's government headquarters came the question that was on everybody's mind. "Are you aware, General Pak," a Korean reporter ventured hesitatingly, "that the newspapers are afraid to criticize you?" Major General Pak Chung Hi, the flinty, gimlet-eyed boss of the junta that seized power in May, snapped back impatiently: "This is the first time I have heard of it. If this allegation is true, it is because you journalists are chicken-hearted...
Last week South Korea's press, which serves a nation of 24.5 million people, readily conceded the point to Pak. "He was asking for a martyr's courage," said Editor Pu Wan Hyuk of the Chosun Ilbo. "We cannot expect reporters to be revolutionaries." Asked a reporter: "How can you tell the precise dividing line between constructive criticism and anti-revolutionary slander? It's better to stay on the safe side...
...embassy, diplomats were appalled. They had been urging the junta's new boss, Major General Pak Chung Hi, toward liberalization of his tough military rules, and the restoration of as many democratic institutions as possible. Just before Van Fleet began sounding off, they seemed to be having some success. Pak called a press conference to announce that the government would have a "refreshing announcement" by Aug. 15, detailing at that time how and when the country would be handed back to civilian rule. Pak has released one-third of the 20,000 prisoners arrested in the early days...
...Other Chang. So far, the junta generals had been devoting themselves mainly to arrests of prostitutes, jaywalkers, hooligans, and harassment of suspected Communists, liberals and corrupt politicians. Pak's first major move after taking over was to set off in full cry after the liberals again. Announcing a new law providing penalties up to death for Communist collaborators, the junta arrested former Premier John Chang and seven of his Democratic Party Cabinet ministers who were in his Cabinet before the May 16 coup, labeling them "proCommunist plotters." Although John Chang is a Catholic and a well-known antiCommunist, Pak...
Watching warily, U.S. officials hoped that Pak might finally stop the witch hunts, get down to grappling with South Korea's basic problems; scarcely anything had been done to get the stagnant economy going. At week's end, Pak took to a public rostrum to declare that "the revolution has entered the second stage . . . Its objectives are winning' the public mind, and reconstruction of the economy." Everyone would be happy if he followed up his words with a little action...