Chanting Students Urge Kim Young Sam to Quit

Kim Dae Jung and Kim Young Sam, opposition rivals for the South Korean presidency, Sunday addressed a rally of students who repeatedly chanted for the latter to pull out of the race.

“We can achieve revolution through election,” Kim Dae Jung told the partisan crowd. He urged them to support a national referendum Tuesday on constitutional amendments authorizing the December presidential balloting.

He also sharply attacked the campaign image promoted by Roh Tae Woo, a former general who is the ruling party’s candidate.

‘Common Man’s Perspective’

“Roh Tae Woo says he is an ordinary man, but looking through a common man’s perspective, he is wrong,” the opposition candidate declared.

Kim charged that the government and the ruling party have no intention of permitting a fair election, and he called again for appointment of an interim, nonpartisan Cabinet to oversee the voting.

The two Kims sat side by side on the speakers’ stand during the rally, which lasted more than three hours. Kim Dae Jung, 63, wore a traditional Korean robe, while his 59-year-old rival was dressed in a blue business suit. Though neither criticized the other on the podium, the bitterness created by their dual candidacies seemed evident.

When Kim Young Sam said he would continue “to do all I can to achieve the single candidacy,” shouts of “Yield! Yield!” came from the crowd of about 40,000 at a Korea University athletic field.

The moderator scolded the students, saying, “It is not the manner of democratization to be rude to the speaker.”

Few Minor Fights

In the course of the afternoon, a few minor fights broke out between rival supporters. The rally was sponsored by a new organization called the Youth and Students Joint Committee for Establishment of Democracy.

When the rally ended at dusk, Kim Young Sam slipped quietly away as Kim Dae Jung mounted a Korean version of the Popemobile and led a throng of chanting, torch-bearing students in a march toward the center of the city.

They had gone only a few blocks, however, when the march met a phalanx of riot police with orders to break up the unauthorized demonstration.

The candidate called on his followers to go home, and he departed in a private car. After a 10-minute standoff, the police scattered the remaining demonstrators with a barrage of tear-gas grenades.