State violence
Ten years after the end of authoritarian rule, the political landscape in South Korea has changed enormously. The country is no longer a police state. The prison terms given to two ex-presidents are one sign of this
These changes in the political system are affecting the manner in which struggle against the government is carred on, including the legitimacy of violence in student and other protests.
The basic problem is that in spite of the opening of the electoral process and the recent revelations about bribery and corruption, the manner in which the Korean government responds to protest has remained much the same since military rule ended 10
Riot police are routinely despatched in large numbers to contain any student or worker political activity. Indeed, the potential force deployed against students has actually increased recently with helicopters being employed for the first time during last year's disturbances at Yonsei University. Students and North Korea
It is difficult to know how much the current crisis in North Korea is effecting ideological debate among student activists Some elements of the student movement do promote a Stalinist vision of socialism. This is hardly surprising. After all, both North and South Korean media call Kim Jong-il's Stalinist monarchy in the North "socialist"
Some within Hanchongnyon continue to insist that the prominent North Korean defector, Hwang Jong-yop, was the victim of a kidnapping — as North Korea originally argued. Some students also suggest that talk of famine in the North is merely propaganda invented by the South Korean CIA.
Part of the problem is the relative lack of Korean language publications offering alternative viewpoints — and those who publish such material run the risk of imprisonment under the National Security Law.
Violence will continue as long as the regime deploys riot police against the student movement. But student militants themselves must also re-examine their attitude to "revolutionary violence," including the treatment of suspected police informers.
One sign of this self-examination is the dissident poster put up by a group of Hanchongnyon supporters at Seoul National University after the first beating death. It read: "The strongest weapon in a student movement lies not in violence, but in the innocent means to attempt to create a society full of love. We must apologise to the people for what took place and make efforts so that such incidents will not happen again."*
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