South Korean Urges Opposition to Unite

The leader of a vigorous new opposition party backed by purged politician Kim Dae Jung called on other opposition parties Wednesday to merge with his group and pledged an effort to revive South Korea’s “suffocated democracy.”

Lee Min Woo spoke to reporters the day after the surprising success of his New Korea Democratic Party in National Assembly elections on Tuesday made the 26-day-old party the nation’s No. 1 opposition force.

The 70-year-old party leader made no specific proposal for grouping the three opposition parties into a widely forecast “grand coalition” against the government of President Chun Doo Hwan. But he and other leaders of the party pointed to repeated calls made earlier by the former leading opposition group, the Democratic Korea Party, for unifying the opposition.

Will Press Reforms

They also made it clear that they intend to press Chun hard both for democratic reforms and for investigation of past scandals.

Choi Ki Sun, acting spokesman of the new party, which was established Jan. 18, said the group’s legislators will demand parliamentary investigations of such matters as a financial scandal in which the uncle of Chun’s wife was arrested and jailed, and of the 10-day Kwangju uprising in 1980 in which at least 189 people were killed as Chun crushed the revolt with troops.

The New Korea Democratic Party finished with 67 seats in the 276-seat assembly, including proportional representation seats allocated to it after it won 50 seats in direct elections.

Chun’s ruling Democratic Justice Party finished with 148 seats, thanks in large part to an election law provision giving the party that wins the most seats in the direct elections an additional 61 proportional representation seats, two-thirds of all such seats allocated. Chun’s party won 87 seats in the direct voting.

Former Activist Wins

The Democratic Korea Party finished with only 35 seats and the Korea National Party, made up of former supporters of the assassinated President Park Chung Hee, got 20. Six minor party candidates and independents also won assembly seats.

In the 1981 election, the Democratic Korea Party’s candidates had to receive clearance from government officials. No clearance was required this time, a fact symbolized by the victory in Seoul of Lee Chol, 37, a former student activist with a record of three jail sentences--including a death sentence on charges of sedition--under both Park and Chun. Lee Chol joined the New Korea Democratic Party and finished first in his two-seat district after a campaign of only 20 days.

Lee Min Woo told reporters that voters, especially in the big cities, rallied to his new party “not because our candidates were better than other candidates but because the party maintained a position as a true opposition force.”

Edged Chun in Seoul

He also said Chun and his ruling party should heed the results of balloting in Seoul, where the New Korea Democratic Party won 14% more of the popular vote than Chun’s candidates did. The results in the capital, Lee said, were a reflection of widespread criticism of Chun’s policies.

“The ruling party must learn to be fearful of the people,” he declared. Nationwide, the New Korea Democratic Party won only 6.1% less of the popular vote than Chun’s ruling party, which polled 35.3% of the votes cast. Four years ago, the ruling party got 35.6% of the votes and was the leader in all 14 districts in Seoul. This time, the party managed only two first-place finishes in the capital.

Each of the nation’s 92 districts elects two members of the National Assembly. No party may run more than one candidate in each district.

Kwon Ik Hyun, chairman of the ruling Democratic Justice Party, told reporters that his party will continue a dialogue with the opposition in an effort to resolve disputes. He also promised to meet three or four times a year with students, who have been conducting anti-Chun demonstrations since the former general removed police from the nation’s campuses in early 1984.

60 Had Been Banned

Political analysts, however, said they believe that the Democratic Justice Party, which won only three fewer seats than it did four years ago despite the surprise showing by the New Korea Democratic Party, will now be dealing with a new form of opposition.

More than 60 politicians who were banned from political activity by Chun in 1980 but who were recently removed from the purge list were elected Tuesday. All of them have declared open support for Kim Dae Jung, 61, who returned from a two-year exile in the United States last Friday.

Kim, who was placed under limited house arrest upon his return, remains under the cloud of a suspended 20-year jail term on charges of sedition and is one of 14 politicians who are still banned from participating in politics. Another is Kim Young Sam, 57, who is also supported by the new opposition party.

Direct Presidential Vote

Demands for the removal of both Kims from the purge list, along with the 12 other politicians of the Park Chung Hee era, are certain to be pressed by the party with an intensity that the former opposition lacked, the analysts said.

So, too, are demands for revision of Chun’s constitution that would permit direct popular election of a president to succeed Chun, who is scheduled to step down in March, 1988, six months before the Olympic Games are to get under way in Seoul.

Chun has resisted all calls for an amendment to allow direct election of the president, rather than indirectly by an electoral college, and his party holds the power to thwart any amendment. Passage of constitutional amendments requires approval by two-thirds of the members of the National Assembly and by a majority of the voters in a referendum.