Word: seoul
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Agency chief accused of murdering President Park Chung Hee last Oct. 26, the words were a defiant attempt to assume total responsibility for the assassination, for which six accomplices were also charged. His plea was in vain. Last week Kim, standing haggard and unshaven before a military tribunal in Seoul, was condemned to death with six others for his abortive coup attempt, which was described by one of the defendants as having been "like a rebellion in a medieval court...
...keep the country on the path to normality after the trauma of the assassination. Yet Choi himself, who was formally inaugurated as President last week, the day after the Kim verdict, had far more on his mind than retribution for Park's slaying. For one thing, Seoul was still swirling with apprehensions in the wake of the stunning, couplike arrest of the former martial law commander, General Chung Seung Hwa, and a dozen other senior officers by a group of aggressive younger generals. For another, U.S. diplomats and military leaders in the capital who had previously stood aloof were...
...most observers. His Cabinet, sworn in before his own inauguration, seemed to be both neutral and competent. Selected as Prime Minister was Shin Hyon Hwack, a technocrat and former economic planning chief. The new Defense Minister was General Choo Young Bok, known as "Tiger Choo" to American officers in Seoul, and, curiously, the first South Korean Defense Minister with a knowledge of English good enough for direct communication with U.S. commanders. According to President Choi's earlier promise, the newly installed Cabinet's most important immediate task was supposed to be the preparation of a political breakthrough...
...gradual political development mapped out by President Choi Kyu Hah gone too far to suit the young generals? Probably. One ranking government official in Seoul noted last week that the young generals had been "furious about the way democratization had been moving ahead." TIME learned last week that General Chun had first secretly consulted a handful of young fellow generals in sympathy with his aim. He discreetly assembled portions of at least two divisions for the arrest. Some units even seem to have left front-line positions on the demilitarized zone to come 30 miles to the fringes of Seoul...
...Seoul's 600,000-man armed forces were promptly placed on full alert, and tanks took up positions at major government buildings. The Carter Administration expressed alarm over the developments. "It's a power play, the three stars against the four stars," said a high official. U.S. Ambassador William Gleysteen Jr. was ordered to convey a tough message to the Korean brass: Keep your hands off politics or risk a grave rupture in U.S. relations. For the time being, at least, that warning held. President Choi, for his part, sought to show that his political timetable was unchanged...