S. Korean Opposition Forms New Party : 2 Leading Dissidents Plan Tougher Stance Against Chun Regime

The two leading South Korean dissidents formed a new party Wednesday and began forging what they hope will be a tighter, tougher opposition to the government of President Chun Doo Hwan.

Kim Young Sam and Kim Dae Jung said in a joint statement that they are leaving the New Korea Democratic Party. That party was born only weeks before the National Assembly elections in February, 1985, and gave Chun’s Democratic Justice Party a surprisingly strong contest in the voting.

“We decided there is no way but this separation and inauguration of a new party to achieve real democratization,” Kim Young Sam told a packed news conference at the Council for the Promotion of Democracy, the Kims’ private political group. Kim Dae Jung was under house arrest and unable to attend.

74 Lawmakers Switch

Seventy-four of the New Korea Democratic Party’s assembly deputies switched to the new movement, leaving the party with only 16 of the chamber’s 276 seats. President Chun’s party has 147. The rest are held by smaller parties and independents.

Lee Min Woo, 71, president of the New Korea Democratic Party, said he will remain with it.

Plans call for organizing district chapters quickly so the new party can hold a convention next month and complete its formal organization, apparently with Kim Young Sam as president.

Kim Dae Jung is South Korea’s best-known dissident but still is under a suspended 20-year prison sentence on a 1980 sedition conviction, which denies him civil rights and technically bars him from politics.

Despite the goal of establishing a more effective opposition, there were signs that the split in the opposition benefits Chun and his colleagues in the governing party and might enable them to accomplish what they want in the National Assembly.

Chun, a former general, took power after President Park Chung Hee was assassinated in 1979. His opponents accuse him of running a military dictatorship.

Chun’s term ends next February, and how South Korea’s next leader is to be chosen has been a major issue over much of the past two years.

Kim Young Sam’s statement said the new party will be made up of “clear-cut and courageous people,” who will fight for changes in the constitution to establish direct presidential elections.

The government has proposed constitutional revisions that would set up a parliamentary system with a strong prime minister and largely ceremonial presidency. Most of the opposition contends that this plan, like the current electoral college system of choosing the president, would favor those now in power.

The two Kims are longstanding rivals for opposition leadership but have declared over the past two years that they will stand together in the struggle against Chun’s government. The two Kims have unswervingly supported direct election of a new president, which they believe is the best way for them to win elections.

Rifts Developed

Several rifts had developed in the opposition party in recent months.

First came differences between the two Kims and Lee Min Woo, the party president. Then two lesser figures demanded that the Kims stop “meddling” in party affairs.

The question now appears to be whether the new party can prove its unity and strength to members of the growing middle class and many other South Koreans who may not support Chun but are not willing to risk their gains on a feuding opposition.