Echo of History?

Almost exactly five years ago, South Korean students swept into the streets of Seoul for a week of rioting that finally brought the downfall of Syngman Rhee. Last week students were on the rampage again with the same strident tone of reckless abandon. First, 2,000 chanting collegians traded stones for tear gas with mesh-masked police. Three days later, a mob of 6,000 swarmed through the capital's main streets. On and on it went, until the daily demonstrations mushroomed to 10,000 youths in Seoul, with lesser eruptions in other cities as well.

What the students were shouting about was President Chung Hee Park's recent agreement with Japan settling the longstanding grievances between the two nations (TIME, April 2), including a new fishing pact that many Koreans consider excessively advantageous to the Japanese. And what soon gave the student uprising a special focus was the emergence of a "martyr," Tonggook University Student Kim Chung Bai, 21, who died of a skull fracture in the opening round of riots. Protest "mourning rallies" blossomed, and 100 Tonggook coeds solemnly paraded wearing black ribbons for their dead hero.

But though the students insisted that the "spirit of April is still alive," it hardly had the same kick this year. For one thing, the army, unlike the last time, is thoroughly on the side of Park and the government. So far the students have rallied little support from their elders, who seem bored with the riots and largely acquiescent in Park's deal with Japan, which guarantees Korea significant new quantities of Japanese trade and aid.

Park himself was little fazed by the students' noisy violence--which was at least partially the result of normal spring exuberance. While the head-banging went on, he coolly continued a leisurely cruise aboard a government navy boat inspecting offshore islands. Though he reinforced the police with troops, at week's end Park had still seen no reason to declare martial law. Instead he simply closed down the nation's universities for a while.

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