SOUTH KOREA: Power Grab

Tanks rumbled into Seoul last week and took up positions in front of the National Assembly, the capitol, the opposition-party headquarters and newspaper offices. Troops surrounded the house of the editor of Seoul's biggest daily and quickly turned Yonsei University into an armed camp. Then, in a pre-recorded television speech, President Park Chung Hee informed South Koreans that he was proclaiming martial law and dissolving the National Assembly. He also banned all political activities, closed the universities and imposed tight censorship on the press.

Park, who first took power in a military...

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