Kim Dae Jung Makes Clear He Is ‘Definitely Running’

Kim Dae Jung declared Friday that “I am definitely running” for the presidency of South Korea, making official what he had earlier implied.

“There are two great pressures from the people now,” Kim said in a televised interview. “One, that there be a single opposition candidate; the other, for me not to give up and to run and be elected. I’ll run for sure.”

He made the statement as his rival, Kim Young Sam, who declared his candidacy a week ago, arrived in this southern port city for a rally designed to bolster his image as the choice of the opposition.

Kim Dae Jung said he did not know whether he will run as a candidate of the opposition Reunification Democratic Party or as an independent. This uncertainty underlines the critical opposition problem in the race against ruling party candidate Roh Tae Woo in the December presidential election--which of the Kims is to be the opposition party’s candidate.

His Proposal Rejected

Early this week, Kim Dae Jung suggested that both he and his rival campaign as independents, leaving the party without an official candidate in the early running. He argued that once the voters somehow indicate their choice in the course of the campaign, the other should withdraw and the survivor would run under the party banner.

Kim Young Sam dismissed the proposal as ridiculous. He said it would leave the party without a candidate as the campaign begins.

Both men are anxious to avoid splitting the party, which was established with great difficulty last spring, but neither is willing to give way at this point.

At a press conference here Friday, Kim Young Sam said he is certain that only one of them will be in the race at the end. Kim Dae Jung said the same thing in the television interview. If both stay in to the finish, opposition chances against Roh will diminish. A fourth potential candidate, Kim Jong Pil, would further dilute the opposition vote.

Kim Dae Jung predicted that the struggle for a single opposition candidate will be resolved by the end of this month. Both he and Kim Young Sam have said as much before, and indicated earlier that they could settle the issue by the end of September; but heated, face-to-face talks in late September were unsuccessful.

Kim Young Sam is banking on today’s rally in Pusan, the country’s second-largest city and center of his home region, to outshine the tumultuous welcome that his rival Kim Dae Jung received last month in Kwangju, capital of the rival’s home province.

Asked whether the rally would improve his chances of becoming the opposition choice, he replied, “Use your imagination.” He predicted a turnout of more than a million for a motorcade and rally in this city of 3.5 million.

Kim also called on President Chun Doo Hwan and Roh, Chun’s handpicked ruling party nominee, to join him in immediate three-way talks to establish a new national Cabinet of nonpartisan officials to run the government through the election period. If a new Cabinet is not chosen promptly, he said, “there will be no chance for fair elections.”

Kim Dae Jung initially raised the idea of a neutral Cabinet, and Kim Young Sam has recently taken up the campaign. But Friday, for the first time, he did not name his rival as a party to the talks. He and Roh qualify as presidents of their respective parties, Kim explained, and Chun as the head of government. Chun is scheduled to leave office next February.

Chun and Roh, meanwhile, have rejected any change in the present Cabinet, which they insist is composed of impartial technocrats.