Students topple Korea Cabinet

The South Korean crisis, precipitated by violent student clashes and the imposition of martial law to quell disorders, took another dramatic turn May 20 when the Cabinet resigned.

Prime Minister Shin Huyn-hwack was reported to have quit for failing to pre vent widespread student rioting while President Choi Kyu-has was out of the country on a diplomatic mission to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

Under the 1972 Constitution President Choi will appoint a new prime minister and cabinet to be approved by the South Korean Parliament.

In the meantime Army will be in control. It has held a preeminet role in the nation since recently assassinated President Park Chung Hee took power in 1961.

The development is a disappointment to thousands of students who demonstrated and battled police in the streets last week to register their unhappiness over the way the government was delaying democracy. Authorities reacted by imposing martial law, closing universities and arresting prominent leaders like former Prime Minister Kim Jong Pil and Kim Dae Jung, a leading dissident and principal foe of the late President Park.

Although order has been largely restored, violence continued into the third day Tuesday in Kwangju, where citizens reported censorship was so strict that police were forbidding them to look out of their windows.