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CONFIDENTIAL Encl. No.
Desp. No

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*rorm FS-4394
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5. A memorandum of conversation with one of these students, |
Mr. KIM Hyung-yul, until early May 1962 Vice-Chairman of the Yonsei
Student Council, is enclosed. é s comments, which were in the
main corroborated by those of three other young men, indicated that
politically aware students have adopted 46 circumspect unenthusiastic
view of the government. Tere are certain features of it which they
dislike, but at the same time they seem to approve of its aims and
tend to believe it is composed of men who are basically honest and
energetic. It is this reserved yet somewhat hopeful attitude which
has led to quiet among politically interested students; 1t is by no
means a sullen quiet and, as Kim characterized it, it is "not explo-
sive .

 -6, ~An ipteresting.insigh well as
into some Government officials' students. was. provided
by events leading up to the recent April 19 Revolution celebrattfon.~
The details of these events were disclosed to the reporting officer
by Colonel SON Kwan-do, Commander of the Yonsei R.O.T.C. unit. Early
in April a student delegation of which Mr. Kim was 4 member, appealed
to the Government to allow university students in Seoul to plan and
organize the celebration rather than merely to take part in a Govern-
ed ceremony. When the Government refused the request,
um that unless the
altogether. Colonel
Son said i anti-govern-
ment sentiment; a desire
to be the key factor in & celebration
deeply. The commander of the Sung Kyun Kwan University ROTC unit
concurred in this view, adding that he thought the Government in this
case was being, as it usually is, unnecessarily restrictive in regard
to student activities and, as & result, was wasting an opportunity to
cultivate enthusiasm for itself on university campuses. Interestingly,
the Chief of the Public Safety section of the Ministry of Internal
Affairs took much the same approach. In trying to persuade the stu-
dents to participate in the Govermment-run ceremony, he asked the
delegation to overlook the Military Government's "neurosis" about
possible student disturbances and to understand that the ultimate
aims of the Government were in the best interests of the country.
Kim, as the Yonsei representative on the delegation, agreed with this
view and told Colonel Son he would not urge any poycott of the cere
mony on Yonsei students. It turned out that, despite Kim's position,
somewhat fewer than half of the students designated to attend the
celebration actually did so. However, the rest, Colonel Son is
certain, were not enga ed in a boycott of the ceremony but were
merely induced by the ine weather to make more enjoyable use of
their day off from school.

T- In attempting to gauge what the attitudes of the small
number of politically active students toward the Government might

be in the future, it should be kept in mind that even these students
| do not seem to be moved by ideological considerations. Unlike their|

CONFIDENTIAL