South Korean students rally as tycoon indicted
South Korean students rally as tycoon indicted
SEOUL (Reuter): South Korean state prosecutors yesterday issued their first indictment against a business tycoon in a huge corruption scandal involving ex-president Roh Tae-woo.
Separately, riot police fired volleys of tear gas to beat back about 1,000 students trying to march on the homes of Roh and his predecessor Chun Doo-Hwan.
The students are demanding the two be indicted for their roles in the bloody suppression of a 1980 civil uprising.
A prosecution official said the chairman of the Hanbo Group, Chung Tae-soo, was formally charged with bribery in connection with a US$654 million slush fund which Roh has confessed to amassing while in office.
"He will not be physically detained," the official said. The indictment alleges Chung gave Roh 10 billion won ($13 million) in November 1990 in return for favors on real estate purchases in Seoul.
Prosecutors rushed the indictment through because a statute of limitations expires today.
In 1991 Chung was found guilty of bribing officials to re-zone sites earmarked for public housing and allow private development. He resigned as group chairman and served six months in prison before retaking the helm.
Roh was arrested and detained on Nov. 16. His arrest warrant accuses him of accepting more than US$300 million from 30 business conglomerates during his 1988-93 term in office.
Hanbo grew from a simple construction firm publicly listed in the 1970s to a mighty steel, construction and pharmaceutical conglomerate. Its flagship company, Hanbo Steel, is the fifth largest steel product manufacturer in the country and most of its growth came during Roh's term.
Crackdown
Students say Roh and Chun should be punished for the crackdown on a 1980 civilian uprising in Kwangju that killed almost 200 people, according to official count. The revolt followed a 1979 military coup led by then army major-generals Chun and Roh.
"Send Roh and Chun to Prison," read a placard waved by a student at a rally in Yonsei university. Other students claimed President Kim Young-sam took some of Roh's slush money to fund his 1990 election campaign and should be punished.
"Those involved in the massacre should be punished," said one protester. "Kim Young-sam should join his two predecessors in prison."
Kim has denied taking a single cent from Roh.
Riot police threw a protective cordon around the homes of Roh and Chun to block about 500 students armed with rocks and steel pipes seeking to storm the residences.
"Execute Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo," chanted the students, many of them from Kwangju. One student leader said a team had been formed to try to make a citizens' arrest.
Later, 1,000 students gathered at Yonsei University for a rally but were tear-gassed by police to stop them leaving the campus and heading towards an exclusive suburb where Roh and Chun live.
President Kim last week ordered his ruling Democratic Liberal Party to draft a special law to punish his two predecessors for crushing the revolt.
According to a Yonhap news agency report, the Constitution Court said it would make a final decision on Thursday about the legality of a ruling by prosecutors earlier this year that the Kwangju massacre was not the result of a deliberate conspiracy.
The agency quoted an unnamed source as saying the ruling would be overturned and another investigation launched.