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When South Korea's Strongman General Park Chung Hee seized power 15 months ago, he embarked on a harsh, puritanical crusade with the startling goal of "remaking Korean man." Park and his military junta jailed gamblers and black-market "businessmen," executed smugglers; taxi dancers were shunned as "decadent" and some 40,000 bureaucrats were slashed from the government payrolls as "too old, too inefficient, too insubordinate, or too opportunistic." Park shut down brothels and made the shapely hustlers pledge that they would lead a "decent life," and then sent them off to rehabilitation schools. But puritanism had a crippling effect on the South Korean economy. It stifled trade, and created an enormous new unemployment problem. Facing facts. Park's junta is wearily letting the nation slide back to its old ways.

Last week the government revised its antigambling laws in order to permit the completion of a miniature Las Vegas outside Seoul. Located on Walker Hill, which is named after the late U.S. General Walton H. Walker who led the U.N. campaign during the Korean war, the $3,800,000 complex will have five hotels, 13 motels, a 500-seat nightclub, and a gambling casino. Financed mainly by the Park government itself, the pleasure project is designed to attract foreign exchange from U.S. G.I.s who previously had traveled to Japan on their leaves.

Contraband luxury goods such as cosmetics, radios and lingerie, once burned in public bonfires because they "aroused wanton desires in the minds of the people," are now being sold openly in government commissaries--to foreigners who bring in needed capital. Alcohol tax rates, which were doubled by Park, have now been reduced because South Korea's breweries suffered an 80% slump in consumption in the first six months of this year.

The junta's "dance control" edict, under which couples were previously sent to jail if seen dancing in public, has been relaxed, and the government's payroll is back to its pre-coup size of 240,000; it is expected to rise by an additional 10,000 by the end of the year. In Seoul, police last week were herding prostitutes back into their old houses in order to maintain more effective watch over them. Under the new rules, the girls have to obey two regulations: they must deposit a portion of their earnings in savings accounts, and attend weekly vocational classes on such womanly pursuits as sewing, dressmaking and cooking.

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