Kim Young Sam Rebuffs Rival’s Offer

Kim Young Sam on Wednesday dismissed as unthinkable a proposal by rival Kim Dae Jung that the two opposition leaders campaign as independents and then let the people decide which of them should face the ruling party’s candidate in the December presidential election.

Kim Young Sam charged that Kim Dae Jung’s proposal was “designed to dissolve the opposition party,” adding: “It defies the rule of party politics and the politics of responsibility. It would betray the people.”

Kim Young Sam, who is president of the opposition Reunification Democratic Party and who declared his candidacy for president Saturday, asked, “How can a party president run as an independent candidate?”

The National Coalition for a Democratic Constitution warned that the differences between the two leaders could split the opposition vote and “lead to an extension of rule by the current military regime.”

Withholds Endorsement

The coalition, which in June led 18 days of street demonstrations against authoritarian rule, decided not to endorse either of the Kims until the opposition party agrees on a single candidate to oppose Roh Tae Woo, the candidate of the ruling Democratic Justice Party.

The Rev. In Myong Jin, the coalition spokesman, said, “We have affirmed once again that the single opposition candidacy is the aspiration of all South Korean people who want to terminate the military dictatorship.”

President Chun Doo Hwan, who came to power in 1980 by means of a coup, is a former army general, as is Roh, his handpicked candidate to succeed him as president.

Kim Dae Jung, who is an adviser to the opposition party, described his proposal for resolving the two-Kims question as the only way to avoid an irreparable split. He warned that an attempt by Kim Young Sam to convene a party nominating convention, at which the party president would hold the upper hand, would lead to dissolution of the Reunification Democratic Party. The two Kims established the party last May after breaking away from the opposition New Korea Democratic Party.

Choice by ‘Popular Support’

“A single presidential candidate should be decided in the last stage of campaigning by who wins more popular support in the course of stumping,” Kim Dae Jung said in a statement. He did not say how such support might be measured.

Meanwhile, three lawmakers, including two representing the Democratic Justice Party, raised in the National Assembly the question of transferring command of the country’s armed forces from the United States to South Korea. The armed forces here have been under a unified command, headed by a U.S. Army general, since the Korean War of the early 1950s.

Defense Minister Chung Ho Yong has said that South Korea will not ask for a transfer of the command until South Korea achieves a level of military strength that would enable it to defend itself without U.S. help. That level, he said, should be reached in the mid-1990s.

Grievance Against U.S.

The command question, which has become a matter of public debate only in the last three months, is a major grievance against the United States among young military officers and students.

In another development Wednesday, riot police fired tear gas at several hundred Yonsei University students demonstrating in connection with the death of a student in June. The incident, one of the few involving students since Roh promised sweeping democratic reforms on June 29, broke out after a campus ceremony commemorating the end of a 100-day Buddhist mourning period for the student, Lee Han Yol. He was killed when a gas canister fired by policemen hit him in the head.

Kim Dae Jung spoke at the ceremony but left the campus before the trouble began.