Riots in the Olympic city

Press, 15 September 1988, Page 14

Riots in the Olympic city

the latest riots in Seoul, the venue for practically all the events in the Olympic Games, may prove to be isolated incidents. The South Korean authorities will attempt to contain them in as quiet a way as possible, if only to avoid bad publicity at a time when the world is focusing on the Games. South Korea has gone to enormous lengths to prepare for the Olympics and the capacity of the country to hold the events — a disputed point from the time Seoul was chosen as host for the 1988 Games — is as much on trial as the abilities of the participants. The riots seem to have a mixture of motives. There are protests about the holding of the Games, a fair amount of anti-United States sentiment, a demand that North Korea should share the hosting of the Games, and various complaints against the Government. The Opposition parties, as well as the student rioters, have been complaining about the Government, particularly the actions of the former President, Mr Chun Doo Hwan, who is alleged to have been responsible for widespread corruption. Mr Chun was President until January this year, when Mr Roh Tae Woo took over. One t of the differences between the Opposition parties and the students responsible for the; latest riots is that the Opposition is not prepared to put the Olympic Games at risk, ■while the students are. Apart from the radical students, there seems to be a general willingness in South Korea to put aside political differences until the Games are over. The' 1 ; radical students are said to amount to no more than about 5 per cent of the total. As yet the student riots do not pose a threat to the holding of the Games. The connecting thread in the seemingly diverse complaints of the protesting students is the relationship between South Korea and the United States. South Korea’s phenomenal economic growth also contributes significantly to the sources of the unrest. South Korea’s extraordinary economic success has given it a SUS9.S billion surplus in trade with the United States. At the same time, South Korea’s domestic markets have remained closed. This has resulted in strong demands from the United States that South Korea open its markets, particularly for • cigarettes and beef. Some people in South Korea see that within the United States there are warnings about the hazard to health from smoking and yet the United States is selling tobacco products overseas. Beef farmers in South Korea are very alarmed at the prospect of large sales of American beef to their country. A number of farmers are

beginning to think that there is some sense in the students’ protests. The more radical protesters in South Korea consider that the country is being used to provide the United States with a front line against Communist aggression. They allege that South Korea supplies cheap labour for American multinational firms, and that United States consumers benefit from this at the expense of South Korean workers. Furthermore, they argue that this situation will continue as long as the two Koreas are kept apart, and therefore that it is in America’s interest to stop the reunification of the peninsula at all costs. The complaint about the holding of the Olympic Games in South Korea and the fact that North Korea is not sharing in the hosting of the Games can be understood in this context. These concerns are fed by the stationing of 41,000 American soldiers in South Korea and nuclear weapons being stored there. The United States has been pressing South Korea to pay more towards the defence of the region. South Korea spends about 6 per cent of its Gross National Product on defence, but the belief persists in the United States that a country that has such a huge trade surplus with the United States, at a time when the United States has such a huge trade deficit, should be prepared to contribute more. The United States took 40 per cent of South Korea’s exports in 1987. Different generations of South Koreans tend to take different views of the United States. The older generation remembers the Korean War and thinks in terms of being dependent on the United States. There is something of a general South Korean fascination with the United States. That attitude contains dangers because it leads to a common belief that the United States will take care of South Korea in all ways, including trade. That is unrealistic. Many people in their 20s and 30s, however, are becoming increasingly impatient with what they see as too great a dependence on the United States, and- the passivity of South Korean leaders about what has been interpreted as Washington’s meddling in South Korean affairs. The many factors that irritate the South Korean-United States relationship existed before the planning for the Olympic Games started and will continue after the Games have been held. But the South Korean Government must hope that during the Games its citizens’ tempers will cool as the focus turns to the great sporting event.