Ruling S. Korean Party Wins, but Foes Do Well : New Group Backed by Kim Dae Jung Emerges in Assembly Vote as Nation’s 2nd Political Force

President Chun Doo Hwan’s ruling party won National Assembly elections as expected today, but a new party supported by Kim Dae Jung, Chun’s purged political enemy, emerged as the No. 1 opposition force.

In the direct part of the voting, with two races yet to be decided, the governing Democratic Justice Party was heading toward victory in 87 assembly races, three fewer than in the last election four years ago, and the New Korea Democratic Party, which was organized only 25 days before Tuesday’s balloting, appeared to be winning in 50 races.

Roughly 84% of the voters cast ballots in the country’s 92 assembly election districts, each of which elects two members.

Foes Strong in Cities

The opposition party made especially strong showings in the nation’s two major cities--Seoul and Pusan--as well as in Kwangju, the site of a bloody 1980 anti-government rebellion in which 189 people were killed. Before the election, even the party’s own leaders had said that its best possible showing would be victories in more than 30 of the direct election contests.

Two-thirds of the assembly’s seats are filled by direct election, with each district choosing two members--although no party can run more than one candidate in a district. Of the other third, called proportional representation seats, 61 are allocated to the party gaining the most votes by direct election. The remaining 31 go to other parties in proportion to the number of seats they win directly.

With the proportional representation seats added, the governing party appeared assured of 148 seats, a majority of 10 in the 276-seat one-house assembly. The New Korea Democratic Party appeared assured of 68, while the former leading opposition party, the Democratic Korea Party, was heading toward a total of 34 and the total of the Korea National Party--a remnant of the assassinated President Park Chung Hee’s supporters--was likely to be 20.

Six minor-party candidates and independents also won seats.

Support for Two Kims

Although both Kim, 61, the opposition candidate in South Korea’s last free and open presidential election in 1971, and Kim Young Sam, 57, another major government opponent, are prevented by Chun’s purge order from participating in politics, candidates of the New Korea Democratic Party openly declared their support of the two Kims. The two purged politicians, who are not related, are listed as advisers to the new party, which campaigned on a platform of ending what it called “military dictatorship” and restoring democracy to South Korea.

After the results of the election began to be clear today, Kim Dae Jung took note of them in a telephone conversation, in which he called the result “a victory for those who aspire to democracy.”

Kim contended that the ruling party was able to virtually duplicate a 1981 election performance because of controls on freedom of speech, an absence of locally elected assemblies, campaign controls and intervention on behalf of the ruling party by government officials.

“Under those conditions, it is no surprise that the vote for the ruling party did not change substantially,” he said.

He noted, however, that in the nation’s big cities--Seoul, Pusan and Kwangju, which he said “represent Korea”--the new opposition party ran 10% ahead of the ruling Democratic Justice Party in the popular vote, a showing that he called a significant triumph over Chun’s party.

Kim also said that he will encourage all of the opposition parties, as well as independents, to merge into one “grand opposition party” to seek restoration of democracy.

The New Korea Democratic Party now promises to criticize Chun vociferously in the National Assembly, which sits through March, 1989, one year after Chun’s constitutionally limited single term is to end.

It takes over the leadership of the opposition from the Democratic Korea Party, whose candidates in 1981 were able to run only after receiving clearance from government officials.

Even before the ballot-counting ended, editors of Korean newspapers were summoned for a meeting this morning with Lee Jin Hui, minister of culture and information. The meeting was reportedly called to give editors instructions to play down the surprising showing by the New Korea Democratic Party.

One source, who asked not to be named, said government officials are alarmed by the strong showing of the party supported by the two Kims.

Higher Level of Freedom

Alarming as the surge of the new opposition party may have been to Chun’s ruling Democratic Justice Party, its strong showing itself appeared to reaffirm the new level of freedom that Chun permitted both for the campaign and the vote-counting.

A foreign observer said the campaign, during which “voters heard things they haven’t heard for years,” represented “real progress toward greater democracy.”

During the 20-day campaign, Chun was widely condemned--both in political rallies and in the mass media, which reported opposition candidates’ comments--for running a “military dictatorship” and for “politics of violence and repression.”

Lee Min Woo, 70, the president of the new opposition party, however, accused the government even before the ballot counting was finished of carrying out “the most illicit election in the history of the nation’s constitutional rule.” He charged that his party had detected evidence of 300 cases of illegal or unfair campaign practices, including use of government bureaucrats and executives of state-run corporations to campaign for ruling-party candidates.

Lee, himself elected in a hotly contested race in central Seoul, also said that his party intends to launch a drive to amend the Chun-era constitution to provide for direct election of the president and to scrap “all undemocratic systems.”

Both Sides Do Better

Although the results for Chun’s harshest critics were far better than expected, the outcome for the ruling group was also more favorable than forecast before the election. Only a day before the balloting, Kwon Ik Hyun, the Democratic Justice Party’s chairman, said six or seven of the party’s candidates might lose; three were actually defeated.

Also, the ruling party’s percentage of the vote had been expected to drop from its 1981 level. However, incomplete returns indicated that it very slightly increased its share, from 35.6% to 35.7%. The New Korea Democratic Party, meanwhile, was getting 29% of the vote, only about 7% lower than the ruling party.

The ruling party’s floor leader in the assembly, Lee Jong Chan, 49, a former army general who helped bring Chun to power in 1980, also overcame a strong challenge to win a hard-fought victory, finishing 2,000 votes ahead of opposition leader Lee Min Woo, the runnerup elected in the same Seoul district.

The effect of Kim Dae Jung’s return from a two-year exile in the United States last Friday was difficult to measure.

His Return Censored

Kim had said he believed that his homecoming would encourage supporters of the new opposition party, but news of the fracas involving police, Kim, and 22 of his American supporters at the airport and the ensuing American government criticism of South Korea was censored here.

Kim, whose 20-year jail term on a sedition conviction has been suspended, was placed under limited house arrest Friday.