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Students in Taegu and Seoul staged campus rallies and demonstrations in
September 1979. In mid-October, students in Pusan poured into the streets and
clashed with police, leading the government to declare martial law in that city.
In late October, students in Masan launched a demonstration; the government
placed the city under "garrison decree." The army took over the
responsibility for public order.
Close Park associates such as Kim Chong-p'il were reported to have counseled
the president to meet some of the student demands and reduce repression, but
were opposed by presidential security chief Ch'a Chi-ch'ol. Ch'a also sharply
disagreed with Kim Chae-gyu, the director of the KCIA, who had counseled
moderation in the government's handling of the student protesters. On October
26, 1979, the nation's most powerful figures, Park, Ch'a, and Kim Chae-gyu, met
in a KCIA safe house restaurant for dinner to discuss, among other things, the
Pusan situation. In the sharply divided discussion that followed, Kim gunned
down Park, Ch'a, and their bodyguards.
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