Predecessor’s Rules of Conduct Go Into Ashtray at Roh Interview

SEOUL —  Just before he relinquished power last January, South Korean President Chun Doo Hwan appeared for a news conference with the foreign press--his only such meeting in eight years as president.

The reporters were told not to smoke, although Chun did. They were told to remove any rings from their fingers and not to cross their legs--to avoid showing the soles of their shoes to a superior, which is taboo in Korea. The use of tape recorders was prohibited.

On Monday, when a Times reporter met with Chun’s successor, President Roh Tae Woo, the ban on tape recorders was still in effect.

Taping the president “has never been done before,” an aide said.

But Roh, who promised to eliminate the royal trappings that his authoritarian predecessors brought to the presidency, insisted on none of the other old rules.

An ashtray was provided, but in deference to a Korean custom of not smoking in the presence of a superior, it was not used.

There were no instructions on etiquette. And Roh, who has won grudging praise from his opponents for carrying out widespread democratic reforms, imposed no restrictions on the questions he would take.

Chun always sat at a considerable distance from visitors, but Roh’s chair was placed just three feet away from that of his interviewer.

The interview was to have ended after 45 minutes, but it went on for an hour. And when it was over, Roh’s chief of protocol, who had served as interpreter, agreed to make up for the lack of a tape recorder by going over his written account of what had been said.