Net of Repression

At various times in his twelve-year rule, South Korea's dour President Park Chung Hee has talked about democracy --but never very convincingly. Last week he left no doubt about his true feelings, angrily cracking down on all opposing voices in the wake of widespread demands for a new, more liberal constitution to replace the repressive one he imposed on the country a little more than a year ago.

Opposition to his constitution, which gives Park dictatorial powers, came into the open in October when students began marching in protest. They were soon joined by leading religious, civil and literary figures, who launched a campaign to collect 1,000,000 signatures on a petition asking for a restoration of democracy. His opponents were emboldened by the international protests touched off last fall by the flagrant kidnaping in Japan of Korean Opposition Leader Kim Dae Jung presumably by Park's secret police (TIME, Aug. 20). Finally, when the minority New Democratic Party pledged an "all-out struggle" for constitutional reform last week, Park felt that it was time to act.

"Harsh Reality." Capitalizing on fears that South Korea's hard-won prosperity (annual economic growth rate: 12%) might be jeopardized by the energy crisis and worldwide recession, Park invoked Article 53 of his constitution, which allows him to take emergency measures "in time of natural calamity or grave financial or economic crisis." Trying to cloak his repression in the garb of national necessity, he declared: "In view of the rapidly changing international situation, particularly the turbulent waves caused by the fluctuations of the international economy ... I cannot but conclude that our fatherland faces an extremely harsh reality."

His opponents, at least, faced a harsh reality: anyone daring to criticize the constitution or advocate its revision was subject to 15 years in prison. Even foreign reporters were warned to be careful about what they wrote; Japanese correspondents were summoned to the Information Office and given a stern dressing down on past dispatches discrediting Park's authoritarian regime. To underline the threat, the Japanese ambassador was told to caution his country's reporters about Park's new dos and don'ts. South Korea's Central Intelligence Agency (secret police) was given power to investigate the constitution's critics, and army generals were appointed to head the courts-martial that would try offenders. The national police were placed on round-the-clock duty, and uniformed policemen were posted at major intersections in South Korea's chief cities. Park even made it a crime to criticize his decree ordering the crackdown.

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