Page 10-Tuesday, June 3, 1980-The Michigan Daily
MILITARY TO DRAFT NEW CONSTITUTION
S. Korean congress thwarted
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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - In yet
another apparent setback for
democracy, South Korea's military-
dominated government said yesterday
that the popularly elected National
Assembly will not help write the
nation's new constitution.
The government also announced the
appointment of two military leaders -
Maj. Gen. Ro Tae-woo, commander of
the Seoul garrison, and *Maj. Gen.
Chung Ho-yong, special forces com-
mander -to a new committee that is to
run the country's affairs. Both are
closely tied to Chun Doo-hwan, the
military strongman who is chairman of
the committee.
CHUN ANNOUNCED he was
resigning his post as director of the
Korean Central Intelligence Agency,
but he was not expected to yield any
power.
In Washington, State Department
spokesman Hodding Carter said the
United States will "evaluate the role of
the new committee through its actions
rather than its words in the coming
days and weeks." He again called for
establishment of a broadly based
coalition government.
In Seoul, a member of a special
government committee appointed to
rewrite the constitution said, "The
original plan was to write a unified
draft by discussing it with the National
Assembly, but the government changed
its mind and will now produce a first
draft without the National Assembly."
THE PLAN now, he said, is for the
committee to complete its draft of a
new constitution by the end of July,
then hold a national referendum on the
document beforeSept. 20.
Chun and other national leaders, in-
cluding civilian president Choi Kyu-
hah, have pledged that a new con-
stitution will be written by the end of
1980 and that general elections based on
it will be staged in early 1981.
However, opposition leaders have
expressed fears that the constitution
will not provide for sufficient
democratic reform and that elections
will be tailored to satisfy the military.
THERE WERE widespread calls for
constitutional reform after last Octob-
er's assassination of President Park
Chung-hee. Park consolidated his
power by rewriting the constitution in
1972. That constitution is still in effect.
The government-appointed con-
stitutional committee first met May 19,
but its second scheduled meeting last
Monday was postponed because of the
crisis over an anti-government
rebellion in Kwangju.
Paratroopers recaptured the city last
Tuesday, and the military on Saturday
moved a step closer to absolute control
of the country with the formation of the
25-member Special Committee for
National Security Measures. All but
eight of the council's members are ac-
tive or retired generals.
CHUN AND the two other military
leaders were named to the "standing
committee" within the councilfthat will
exercise control.
Observers speculated Chun gave up
his post as head of the KCIA, which he
took in April, ina bid to remove friction
between the military and student
dissidents. The students had demanded
that he quit or be fired.
HIKING
BOOT
SALE
In another development yesterday,
the government ordered the closing
down of Japan's Kyodo News Service
Bureau in Seouland told bureau chief
Kenjiro Hayashi to-leave the country by
next Monday.
The Culture and Information
Ministry said Hayashi was guilty of
"ill-intended, distorted and false repor-
ting" of events in South Korea. Hayashi
denied the charges, but said he would
not appeal.
TMI sued
by gov't
to compel
testimony
WASHINGTON (AP)-The Justice
Department sued yesterday to compel
five employees of the Three Mile Island'
nuclear plant to testify before the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission about
the major accident which occurred
there last year.
Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti
said a single count civil suit was filed
against the five employees of
Metropolitan Edison, the utility
which operates the Pennsylvania
nuclear reactor, in U.S. District Court
in Harrisburg.
THE GOVERNMENT said the five
employees had refused to testify last
month after each of them was sub-
poenaed by the commission.
The defendants are control room
operators Hugh McGovern and Lynn
Wright and shift supervisors Brian
Mehler, Joseph Chwastyk and William
Zewe. The government said the five,
who live in the Harrisburg area, were
present at the nuclear plant on March
28, 1979, the first day of the accident.
"I don't have any comment on
anything along those lines," said
McGovern, who added that he knew
nothing of the suit. Efforts to reach the
other four were not successful.
ACCORDING TO the NRC, their
testimony about three events bearing
on the seriousness of the accident is
needed to help the commission decide
whether the accident should have been
reported more promptly to its staff.
The Justice Department said infor-
mation about the three events is crucial
to assessing the potential for release of
radiation outside the plant and possible
hazards to the surrounding population.
The five employees filed a motion
with the commission last month to
quash the subpoenas on grounds that
they were unduly burdensome and that
a grand jury investigation of the ac-
cident is underway.
The NRC denied that motion finding
no undue burden in subpoenas. Ad-
ditionally, the NRC rejected the conten-
tion that its civil investigation should be
halted because of the ongoing federal
grand jury probe.
The grand jury investigation is
looking into allegations by a Three Mile
Island control room operator, Harold
Hartman, that results of certain tests
had been falsified over - period of
several mnth- before the accident.
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