Battles erupt over N. Korea in Seoul as families meet

Battles erupt over N. Korea in Seoul as families meet

SEOUL (AFP): Student riots and political battles over North
Korea erupted in Seoul on Friday as 200 people met with relatives
they had not seen since Korea's Cold War frontier went up 50
years ago.

The long-lost families shed tears in private hotel rooms on
the second day of the exchange reunions in Seoul and Pyongyang.
But clashes between police and students demanding the abolition
of South Korea's national security law, which bans contacts with
the North, saw dozens of people injured.

The South Korean opposition and newspapers meanwhile accused
the government of giving in to North Korean threats over the
organization of the family reunions.

Disturbances erupted outside the National Assembly when
thousands of riot police stopped a march by 1,500 students who
were beaten by police wielding truncheons. The protesters in
turn, kicked and punched police.

More than 30 people were injured on both sides, witnesses
said. Police took away dozens of students.

President Kim Dae-Jung has promised to revise the National
Security Law which lays down long jail terms for unauthorized
contact with the North or even praising North Korea.

Groups demanding contact with the North have called for its
immediate repeal. Another group demanding the end of the law
started a sit-in at Seoul's Myondong Cathedral.

The president's political opponents urged him to get tough
with the North following a dispute over the head of the South
Korean Red Cross.

North Korea had threatened to boycott the family reunions over
a magazine interview in which Red Cross chief Chang Choong-Shik
said there was no freedom in the North. The threat was only
dropped after Chang apologized.

But the official flew unexpectedly to Tokyo on Wednesday
evening, the eve of the get-togethers, in which 100 South Koreans
flew to Pyongyang and 100 North Koreans were brought to Seoul.
The main opposition Grand National Party accused the government
of forcing Chang to go, when normally he would have been the main
organizer.

The Dong-A Ilbo newspaper said North Korea's delegation had
reportedly threatened to boycott an official dinner if Chang was
present.

"It is disgusting to see how the government has dealt with the
North over the Chang issue," the country's biggest newspaper
said.

"We should seriously consider whether the family reunion
program is worth abandoning our prestige and principles for."
The political battles threatened to overshadow the second
reunions since the historic summit in June between President Kim
and the North's supreme leader Kim Jong-Il.

But most of the families, meeting for the first time since the
1950-53 Korean War, were unaware of the disputes.

North Korea gave special permission for two renowned artist
brothers -- one from the North and the other from the South -- to
hold their reunion in a Seoul hospital.

Kim Ki-Man, 71, could only stroke the face of his elder
brother, Kim Ki-Chang, 88, who cannot speak and is close to death
fighting heart disease and septicemia.

Differing ideologies forced the two to separate in 1950. The
younger one was a communist, the elder one stayed in the
capitalist South.

South Korean authorities negotiated special dispensation for
the meeting away from one of the officially designated venues.
Kim Yong-Hwan, the 70-year-old chief editor of the North's Yang
Kang Daily News, put on a patriotic display as he sat with his
67-year-old brother and two sisters from the South.

"Yesterday we met for the first time in 50 years. I'm so
glad," he said. "I'm not crying because it is all thanks to our
Great Leaders Kim Jong-Il and Kim Il-Sung providing the
opportunity to meet relatives in the South."

He added that he was also not sad about the death of his
parents. "I have other parents in North Korea -- Great Leaders
Kim Jong-Il and Kim Il-Sung."

In all, the families will be allowed to spend just over eight
hours with their long-lost relatives. The two delegations will
return to their respective capitals on Saturday morning after a
final farewell.