News stories from Saturday October 27, 1979
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The unity of all South Koreans was called for by acting President Choi Kyu Hah, who urged the nation to be prepared to meet any threat from North Korea following what the government said was the "accidental" shooting of President Park Chung Hee. Mr. Choi, a 60-year-old career diplomat who has been Prime Minister since 1975, was named acting President by the cabinet four hours after Mr. Park was shot to death by the head of the South Korean Central Intelligence Agency, which was said to have been unhappy over President Park's repressive measures.
Skepticism is growing in Seoul over the government's assertion that the shooting of President Park Chung Hee was an accident. Knowledgeable Western and Korean observers say that, at best, the government's account was incomplete and, at worst, improbable, not least because the at least five other persons were said to have been killed. They believe that Mr. Park may have been deliberately murdered.
[New York Times] - Chicago's Mayor will endorse Senator Edward Kennedy's nomination for President. Mayor Jane Byrne's announcement is expected Tuesday, and she will be the first big-city mayor to endorse Senator Kennedy. Both the Carter and Kennedy campaign leaders have assiduously sought her support. She is presumed to be able to deliver the powerful Cook County Democratic machine to her choice, who got her backing reportedly because she believes that President Carter cannot win in Illinois. [New York Times]
- Crime increased in every category reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation this year -- murder, rape, robbery, assault, larceny, burglary and auto theft. The F.B.I.'s preliminary statistics indicate a 9 percent overall increase in the first six months of this year. [New York Times]
- The stock market crash 50 years ago Monday ended the golden age of unbridled American capitalism. It effects are still reverberating in American economic theory and national economic policy, and it was responsible for the government's intervention in private commerce. [New York Times]
- Mass transit use is booming as a result of the gasoline shortage last spring and summer, but officials expect the increases to outlast the fuel problems. The American Public Transit Association said ridership figures this summer showed the largest increases of this decade, as well as uninterrupted growth over the last 25 months. [New York Times]
- A Soviet submarine accident might have been the cause of a possible nuclear explosion detected by a United States satellite off southern Africa last month, South Africa's Navy chief said. Vice Admiral J. C. Walters said in a statement ordered by Prime Minister P. W. Botha that the accident theory was a "real possibility." [New York Times]