Thousands of students demanding the
arrest of former President Chun Doo-hwan clashed with riot police
Thursday in one of the worst street protests in recent months.
   President Roh Tae-woo, on an overseas trip, said he was not
troubled and hoped political turmoil in his country would end ``in
the not-too-distant future.''
   ``I am not much worried about the student protests. Their
complaints will eventually disappear in a huge melting furnace of
democratic political reforms,'' Roh told reporters aboard a plane
which took him to Malaysia, Australia, Indonesia and Brunei.
   Police said more than 20,000 students from 80 colleges took part
in anti-Chun campus rallies or street protests in Seoul and a dozen
provincial cities on Thursday, national students' day. They accused
the former president of corruption and violating human rights.
   About 50 students were arrested, mostly in Seoul, said police.
They gave no injury figures, but said some youths and policemen
suffered cuts and burns.
   In Seoul, about 5,000 students threw firebombs at 9,000 riot
police who blocked their march to Chun's house in a fashionable
residential district.
   Police in armored vans retaliated by firing barrages of tear gas.
   Many pedestrians and residents cried with pain and choked in a
dense fog of the acrid gas.
   Traffic came to a halt and most shops in the area closed as the
fierce fighting continued for several hours.
   All but a handful of protesters were kept well away from the
house. Four youths came within 50 yards of Chun's home and exploded
two crude homemade plastic explosives. The four were arrested by
police before they escaped.
   The students' anger appeared centered on the former president,
but they also berated his successor.
   ``Arrest Chun Doo-hwan. Punish (President) Roh Tae-woo,'' they
shouted.
   It was the worst political clash in Seoul since major
anti-American protests in the early summer.
   In about a dozen other provincial cities, including Pusan,
Chunchon, Suwon and Ansung, protesters threw firebombs at a police
sub-station, a prosecutor's office and a government party building.
No injuries or major damage were reported.
   Anti-government demonstrations have escalated in recent weeks
with radical students organizing ``Save-the-Nation Suicide Squads''
and threatening to raid Chun's house to press for his punishment.
   With public sentiment against Chun, his opponents have been
pressing for his arrest. The general antipathy has spilled over to
Roh, who critics say has been slow to investigate the corruption
charges.
   Roh and Chun, both former army generals, have been close friends
since they were classmates at Korea Military Academy in the 1950s.
Roh succeeded Chun, who stepped down at the end of a seven-year term
in February.
   Chun also is being investigated for his alleged role in putting
down a 1980 civil uprising in southern Kwangju city. About 200
people died in the military crackdown.