Back to Normal

SOUTH KOREA

When General Park Chung Hee ran for President eight weeks ago, he was so confident of victory that he held the most honest election in South Korea's history. The result was almost disastrous; he squeaked in with only 43% of the total vote. Thereafter, Park's Democratic-Republican Party vowed never again to risk such a close shave. Last week, as South Korea elected a new National Assembly, things were a lot closer to normal.

Victory was essential for Park, because the Assembly, though virtually powerless in most other respects, has the constitutional right to institute impeachment proceedings against the President by a simple majority vote. Disregarding election laws, government officials campaigned for Democratic-Republican candidates, and police made house-to-house canvasses. So blatant were some of the tactics that Park was forced to sack two Cabinet members to still the opposition outcry. At the same time, to build up his regime's democratic image, Park ordered an amnesty for political prisoners, publicly permitted exiled former President Syngman Rhee, 88, to return to his native land (ailing in Hawaii, Rhee declined). From Washington, where he had gone for President Kennedy's funeral, Park sent back pictures of himself and President Johnson, had them reproduced and plastered all over South Korea.

On election day, the opposition parties accused Park supporters of stuffing ballot boxes and registering children as voters. Some of the charges were undoubtedly true, but connoisseurs of Korean politics decided that, despite the backsliding from the pure presidential balloting, the proceedings were still far more honest than a lot of other elections in the past. Result: of the 175 seats in the National Assembly, Park's party won a smashing 110.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.