Word: seoul
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...49th day after death, according to Buddhist teaching, the souls of the dead make their journey into the next world. So it was last week that on the appointed day several thousand students gathered in the streets of Seoul to mark the final passage of Park Jong Chul, a 21-year-old student who had died during a police interrogation. What followed was more like a descent into hell...
...year, when North Korean slogans began creeping into South Korean protests and student rhetoric turned sharply anti-American. The U.S. has since urged Chun to help defuse the situation by compromising with the opposition on a formula for the transition to democracy. Secretary of State George Shultz, who visited Seoul last week during a ten-day Far East swing, reportedly received assurances that Chun would seek such a compromise. Said a senior U.S. diplomat: "We believe this is a historic opportunity, and both Chun and the opposition have got to take it." A breakthrough will be difficult to achieve, however...
...students and Chun today seem to be on a collision course. The protesters are clear about what they want. "Most Koreans, whether students or not, favor a return to civilian government," says a former council president at Seoul National University who was jailed for 1 1/2 years for organizing a reading circle. "We want to see a change in the constitution and direct election of a President. This is the most important thing to end the crisis in the country...
Police claimed they had proof of such charges last fall when they discovered a North Korean newspaper article reprinted on wall posters at Seoul National University. Banners urging unification of the two Koreas, in terms used by North Korea, later cropped up during a four-day student occupation of Seoul's Konkuk University. Though radical leaders contend that police planted the provocative materials, many students champion unification with the North. Says a student-union president: "The North and South are one people. Unification is a nationalistic goal, not an ideological one." Adds a frequent demonstrator: "Unification of the fatherland...
...even the most militant protesters admit to favoring a North Korean- style Communist government. "Actually we are in favor of democracy first and then unification," said a Korea University sophomore. Such views reflect a brand of thought that one U.S. diplomat labels "infantile Marxism." Says a Seoul prosecutor who has handled many cases against radical students: "They harbor some romantic views on the nature of the socialist state, and their idealism leads them to think that some of the problems of our society could be solved by socialism. But few understand or are dedicated to bringing the North Korean system...