Kim Dae Jung Accepts Party’s Nomination, Warns of Vote Fraud

Populist candidate Kim Dae Jung, accepting the presidential nomination of his new political party, raised a warning flag Thursday on election fraud.

His ruling party opponent, Roh Tae Woo, can win “only by fraud,” Kim charged, declaring, “I am convinced our people will never condone such a result.”

The longtime opposition leader said his breakaway Party for Peace and Democracy “must stand in the forefront and demand fair elections.” Both Kim and his opposition rival, Kim Young Sam, have elevated the specter of fraud to a priority issue in the campaign for the Dec. 16 balloting, South Korea’s first direct presidential election since 1971.

The new party was formed specifically to support Kim’s candidacy, and it was inaugurated Thursday in the same ceremonies that nominated him. The majority of its members, including Kim, broke away from Kim Young Sam’s Reunification Democratic Party late last month after the two rivals failed, despite repeated pledges, to agree on a single opposition candidate to face Roh.

Kim, 63, promised, as president, to set up a “pure civilian government” that he said would represent blue- and white-collar workers, farmers, students and dissidents who have opposed a succession of military-dominated regimes in South Korea.

“This is the only party that the military cannot penetrate or manipulate,” the new nominee insisted, branding his former party “quasi-democratic.”

But he concentrated his criticism on the ruling Democratic Justice Party. Dressed in a traditional purple robe, Kim, a rousing orator, told a jammed auditorium and, by loudspeaker, thousands of supporters on the street outside:

“This regime, realizing the inadequacy of force as a way of maintaining itself in power, has attempted to use a disguise called ‘elections,’ the reality of which is now becoming clear. (President) Chun Doo Hwan is involving the entire governmental power and using all sorts of deceptive practices to ensure the election of Roh Tae Woo.”

He charged that he was cheated of victory in 1971, when he lost the presidential election to the late Park Chung Hee, and called again for appointment of a neutral Cabinet to assure a fair vote in December. “This is the only way,” Kim insisted.

Chun is to step down in February at the end of his seven-year term.

According to most political analysts here, the opposition reduced its chances, fair or foul, by failing to put up a single candidate against Roh. But by raising the election fraud issue, the two Kims have already laid the groundwork to challenge the results.

“If it all looks fair, then people will accept the result,” a Western diplomat said Thursday, but added, “If it looks raggedy around the edges and Roh wins by 500,000 votes, then they’ve got a problem.”

Before nominating Kim, the new party adopted a program of principles calling for an end to military-dominated government, reunification of South and North Korea, workers’ rights and reconciliation between various regions and classes in the country.

Kim, a one-time lawmaker who has been jailed and harassed by a series of authoritarian governments here, became the last of the major candidates to be nominated.