S. KOREA'S ROH, OPPOSITION MEET FOR FIRST TIME

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP05T02051R000200350094-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 12, 2011
• Sequence Number: 94
• Publication Date: May 29, 1988
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2011/08/12 : CIA-RDPO5TO2O51 R000200350094-8
~~i?II\GION POST ~-~ DATE Jzl+j1 _
NFW YORK TIMES
WALL STREET J.
VMHJNGION TIMES
THE WASHINGTON POST
WORLD NEWS
S. Korea's Roh,
Opposition Meet
For First Time
By Peter Maass
Special to The Washington Post
SEOUL, May 28-South Korean President
Roh Tae Woo and the country's three main op-
position leaders agreed at their first face-to-face
meeting today that only the government should
conduct reunification discussions with commu-
nist North Korea.
The agreement on the sensitive issue, which
has been the focus of intense debate and protest
in Seoul, came during a long and apparently pro-
ductive summit between Roh and "the three
Kims" of the opposition-leftist Kim Dae Jung,
centrist Kim Young Sam and maverick conser-
vative Kim Jong Pil. The four-hour talk was their
first meeting since Roh was elected in December
and took place just a month after the opposition
won a majority in the National Assembly.
There were no reported breakthroughs, but
the meeting at the presidential palace appeared
to be aimed at getting next week's National As-
sembly opening off to a good start.
For the first time in the country's history, the
opposition will control the legislature, and ana-
lysts say that with the Summer Olympics begin-
ning in just over three months here, friction be-
tween Roh and the Kims, as well as among the
Kims themselves, could create an unwelcome
dose of political turbulence at a crucial time.
The meeting began with smiles and ended
with positive words by the four men. Kim Dae
Jung, viewed as the opposition's harshest gov-
ernment critic, told a news conference after the
talks, "I came to understand what the president
AGENCE FRANCE-
South Korean President Roh Tae Woo, right, greets opposition leader Kim Dae Jung before
the talks. oAESSE
has in mind, and I expect that politics will be exempt from punishment. Roh also said the
done smoothly through dialogue." Presidential scope of a proposed political amnesty should be
spokesman Lee Soo Jung told reporters, "The limited in the interests of national security. Kim
president and the three opposition leaders were Dae Jung reportedly disagreed, arguing for a
all content with their meeting and agreed to release of all prisoners of conscience except
meet often in the future." those clea
l
h
r
y sympat
etic to North Korea.
Despite apparent agreement on the impor- But on the key issue of reunification, the four
nce of sta
in
f
l
ta
g
g a success
u
Olympics and the
potentially negative impact of violent student
protests during the Games, Roh and the Kims
were said to remain at odds over several key
issues 'facing the country.
Roh reportedly called on the three Kims to
limit parliamentary probes into past government
corruption and into the 1980 Kwangju uprising,
in which the opposition claims that as many as
2,000 people may have been killed.
According to spokesman Lee, Roh warned
that the probes could divide the nation and in-
sisted that former president Chun Doo Hwan be
men reportedly agreed that the government
should be the sole representative of South Ko-
reans in contacts with North Korea. Radical stu-
dent and dissident, groups have proposed in re-
cent weeks to set up independent channels of
communication with Pyongyang to try to thaw
the frozen contacts between North and South.
The radical students and dissidents, who sup-
port North Korea's call for cohosting the Olym-
pics, represent a new challenge to the govern-
ment on the reunification issue. They also risk
inflaming anti-American sentiments in South Ko-
rea, which have broadened in recent weeks.
Approved For Release 2011/08/12 : CIA-RDPO5TO2O51 R000200350094-8