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.