Members struggle with police

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33712, 9 December 1974, Page 20

Members struggle with police

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

SEOUL, December 8.

More than 60 Opposition members of Parliament tussled with the police today after ending a 72-hour sit-in in the South Korean National Assembly with a renewed pledge to continue their campaign against President Park’s Government.

As they emerged from the Assembly buildings, the Opposition Parliamentarians, ringed by hundreds of riot police and plainclothes police shouted slogans calling for changes in the “dictatorship Constitution,” the release of all imprisoned civil rights protesters, and guarantees to freedom of the press.

The Opposition Parliamentarians then jostled with

the police for about 20 minutes as the police broke them up in an apparent effort to prevent a street march. The New Democratic Party leader Mr Kim YoungSam and several others were bundled into police jeeps i and later released at their homes.

Before ending the sit-in, the Opposition members adopted a resolution accusing the President of infringing the people’s rights and demanding the immediate release of about 200 persons gaoled for campaigning against the Constitution earlier this year. The country’s tough Constitution, adopted under martial law two years ago, gives extra powers to President Park.