Protesters Defy Korea Warning : Rioting Continues; Chun’s Heir Hints at Withdrawal

SEOUL, South Korea —  Protesters defied a government warning of a crackdown and renewed major rioting Saturday in Pusan and street protests in Seoul as President Chun Doo Hwan’s handpicked successor suggested that he might withdraw as the ruling party’s presidential candidate.

A 28-year-old trading company employee--the second fatality in 11 days of turmoil and the first among the demonstrators--died in Pusan, South Korea’s second-largest city, where an estimated 7,000 protesters commandeered 58 city buses. A policeman was killed Friday in Taejon, run over by a bus that had been seized by demonstrators.

Roh Tae Woo, Chun’s candidate for president, told the leaders of two minor opposition parties with whom he met separately: “To resolve the state of instability, I won’t cling to my position (as a candidate). I am willing to put everything on the line to resolve this situation.”

Sets Off Speculation

The statement by Roh, a 54-year-old former army general who helped put Chun in power in a coup seven years ago, set off speculation that he might offer to renounce his designation by the ruling Democratic Justice Party as its candidate to succeed Chun when he steps down next Feb. 24.

A party spokesman discounted such speculation but offered no other observation on the subject of Roh’s remarks.

Roh, who is chairman of the ruling party, also told the opposition leaders that he would present proposals early this week to resolve the turmoil, which began after his nomination June 10.

Just a day after Prime Minister Lee Han Key warned the nation in a television broadcast that continued rioting would make it “inevitable” for the government to undertake “extraordinary” steps to cope with the unrest, street demonstrations erupted here in the capital.

Monks Demonstrate

Outside a Buddhist temple in the center of Seoul, about 150 gray-robed monks joined students in a drizzling rain to shout anti-government slogans, defying a large contingent of helmeted riot police massed around the temple to break up the demonstration. Witnesses said the protesters used fists and umbrellas against the police as tear gas filled the air. Twenty of the monks were detained by the police.

Rioting continued in Pusan, a port city of 3.5 million 205 miles southeast of Seoul. Six more police battalions reinforced thousands of riot and combat police already in Pusan, where street demonstrations and attacks on public buildings have persisted for four days.

The U.S. Consulate there was closed Wednesday through Friday, and the State Department in Washington issued a warning to Americans traveling in South Korea to avoid large crowds in all South Korean cities.

Lee Tae Chun, 28, a trading company employee, died after a fall from a highway overpass as he and other protesters were trying to march to the Pusan City Hall.

Students told reporters that Lee was hit in the head by a tear-gas canister fired by riot police, but a doctor at the hospital where Lee died after brain surgery said the cause of his skull fracture could not be determined.

A riot policeman committed suicide by jumping from the roof of Pusan’s central police station after a superior scolded him for laxity, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported.

Street demonstrations were reported in seven other cities besides Seoul and Pusan, including for the first time Chonju, Chongju, and Mokpo, the newspaper Joong-ang Ilbo reported.

A riot police unit was overrun and stripped of its equipment by a band of protesters among about 10,000 who took to the streets in Kwangju, the city where a major insurrection against Chun’s coup occurred in 1980.

On-campus protests were staged at 46 of South Korea’s 103 colleges and universities, despite government orders that have shut down 80 of the schools early for summer vacation.

The National Coalition for a Democratic Constitution, an alliance of opposition politicians, clergy and dissident groups, issued an ultimatum that the government meet four demands by Monday or face new demonstrations. The coalition called for constitutional reform, release of all political prisoners, guaranteed freedom of speech and assembly and a ban on tear gas.

The coalition said that it tentatively would call for a “grand march” Friday if the government refused.

Urges Resuming Talks

Lee Man Sup, president of the conservative opposition Korea National Party, urged Roh to reopen talks with the opposition on constitutional revision and to use his influence to achieve the release of all those arrested in demonstrations since June 10, a ban on use of tear gas by police, a guarantee of freedom of the press, and an end to house arrest for Kim Dae Jung, a major opposition leader who is under a suspended 20-year prison sentence.

Lee Min Woo, head of the minor opposition New Korea Democratic Party, urged Roh to back a national referendum to determine whether the public wants a presidential form of government with direct elections, as the opposition demands, or a parliamentary system, which the ruling party proposed before Chun halted debate on the constitution April 13.

Kim Young Sam, president of the main opposition Reunification Democratic Party, refused to meet Roh and said that only a meeting between himself and President Chun could bring a halt to the turmoil.

Chun, who barred Kim Young Sam from political activity from 1980 to 1985, has never met Kim, and Roh has met him only on social occasions.

U.S. Sending Official

Meanwhile, the United States moved to underscore its concern over events here. State Department spokesman Charles Redman announced that Gaston J. Sigur, the Reagan Administration’s top Far East specialist, will fly to Seoul early this week to urge the South Korean government to resume political dialogue with the opposition.

Sigur, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, was in Sydney, Australia, with Secretary of State George P. Shultz for U.S.-Australia talks today and Monday. Redman said Sigur will leave for Seoul as soon as the meetings in Australia end.

Redman said that no firm appointments had been arranged for Sigur, although “it is a fair assumption that he will be seeing Koreans.” Redman said Sigur will urge Chun to broaden the base of his government and exercise restraint in dealing with rioting.

In a speech earlier this year, Sigur urged South Korea to adopt a more democratic election system.

U.S. Officials Comment

Chun has been put into an increasing bind at home by statements last week from Reagan Administration officials.

In Washington, White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater put the Reagan Administration on record Friday as favoring a resumption now of talks on revision of Chun’s authoritarian 1980 constitution. On April 13, Chun ruled out any revision until after the Summer Olympic Games that Seoul is scheduled to host in 1988. Washington previously had said only that it “regretted” Chun’s action.

“Through a variety of channels” the United States has told South Korean leaders that “we believe they should continue a dialogue with the opposition on constitutional reform and that they should work to end the strife there . . . by peaceful means,” Fitzwater said.

A day earlier, William Clark, an assistant secretary of state, put the Administration on record as opposing the kind of indirect election that is specified by the current constitution to choose Chun’s successor.

At the ruling party convention, which approved Roh as presidential candidate, Chun declared that he would suppress any attempt to avoid carrying out the election by the indirect, electoral college system specified in the present constitution “no matter what sacrifice may be necessary.”

Times staff writer Norman Kempster, in Australia, contributed to this article.