S. Korea rounds up dozens of journalists

Press, 26 July 1980, Page 8

S. Korea rounds up dozens of journalists

NZPA-Reuter Seoul Martial-law authorities have detained five South Korean journalists working for foreign news organisations and diplomatic sources have said that nearly 60 other journalists working for the local media have also been arrested. The sources said the detentions were part of the Government’s “purification” drive in which almost 7000 civil servants have already lost their jobs. The, five journalists working for foreign organisations who were detained in dawn raids by plain-clothes military security agents were Oh Ilson of NZPA-Reuter, K. C. Hwang, bureau chief of Associated Press, Shim

Jae Hoon, who writes for the “New York Times,” “Le Monde, and the “Far Eastern Economic Revie.” Chon Hak Bum of the Japanese radio organisation N.H.K., and Chung Ho Sang, of Japan's “Asahi Shimbun” newspaper. Shim Jae Hoon and his wife, and Chang Mayng Sook, who is a feature writer for a local newspaper and who was also detained, were released 12 hours later. Foreign embassies and other journalists could not get an official explanation for the detentions. It was not known where the journalists were being held. Diplomatic sources said that the United States, which has several thousands troops in ■ South Korea, was concerned about the detentions and

would take some action about them. The Defence Ministry yesterday invited Mr Oh Ilson of NZPA-Reuter to aftend a dinner later apparently unaware that he had been detained. His home was raided before 7 a.m. when plainclothes men searched his bookshelves, confiscating several books including a locally printed biography of the wife of the late Chinese leader, Mao Tsetung. Martial law was declared over most ot South Korea last October after the assassination of President Park Chung Hee by his . security chief. This was extended last May following student riots and an uprising in the southern city of Kwangju.