Shattered Peace

Seven weeks ago, another struggling Asian nation--South Korea--staged its most peaceful postwar election as voters quietly returned reform-minded President Chung Hee Park to office for another four-year term. Last week, after separate elections for the National Assembly, South Korea suddenly reverted to its old noisy ways. For five straight days, thousands of high school and university students boiled through the streets of Seoul and 14 other cities, waving angry placards ("We demand new elections"), throwing rocks and bottles, and fighting through a police barrage of tear gas and night sticks.

The target of their wrath was not so much Park himself as some candidates of Park's Democratic Republican Party (D.R.P.). In the Assembly elections two weeks ago, the D.R.P. won 130 of the Assembly's 175 seats; that was a gain of 20--far more than expected. The minority, more traditionalist New Democratic Party (N.D.P.) accused the winners of stuffing ballot boxes, doctoring tally sheets and bribing voters and vote counters alike in at least 20 of the country's 131 constituencies. Unless Park called new elections, the N.D.P. threatened, its 44 representatives would boycott the Assembly.

Park refused, but did order an investigation that turned up political hanky-panky on both sides. With that, the government arrested 100 N.D.P. campaign workers and another 70 from its own D.R.P. Among the latter were two successful Assembly candidates who were charged with election irregularities. The Justice Department accused one candidate of bribing poll officials and destroying at least 3,000 ballots cast for his opponent. Another D.R.P. winner was charged with buying votes. Park booted both from the party, and ordered his D.R.P. leaders to take stern action against all other members "who had disgraced the party by being involved in the election scandal."

When South Korea's students took to the streets, Park cracked down just as sternly. He temporarily closed 30 colleges and universities and 148 high schools. In scores of bloody skirmishes, police arrested more than 600 students for questioning, left 150 others injured. Yet for all the sound and fury, Park's government still seemed secure. His economic policies are working wonders in the tiny nation (TIME, May 5), and his courage in moving against his own fellow party members impressed many people. The government party contended, probably correctly, that the vote frauds were isolated irregularities and not part of a nationwide rigging campaign. At week's end the demonstrations tapered off. But the N.D.P. plans a series of rallies this week that could well detonate a new round of riots.

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