Roh Offers Cabinet Posts to Opposition

South Korean President-elect Roh Tae Woo made an unprecedented offer today to fill some posts in his administration with opposition politicians.

“In forming a new Cabinet I plan to ask opposition parties to recommend their candidates,” Roh said. “If found qualified, they will be appointed to the Cabinet.”

Roh did not say which Cabinet posts will be offered to the opposition. The power-sharing is part of his efforts to stabilize South Korea’s volatile politics and long-held complaints against the government.

There was no immediate reaction from the parties led by opposition leaders such as Kim Young Sam and Kim Dae Jung. The Kims were defeated by Roh in presidential elections one month ago. The election was South Korea’s first free, direct presidential vote in 16 years.

To Take Office Feb. 25

Roh, a former general who was President Chun Doo Hwan’s protege, is due to take office Feb. 25 when the incumbent leader steps down after a seven-year, indirectly mandated term.

While the ruling party chief addressed the news conference, two South Korean Roman Catholic priests sought a court action today to nullify his election for alleged massive fraud. The government denies the accusation.

The suit by Fathers Kim Sung Hun and Oh Tae Soon was the first to be filed against the independent Central Election Management Committee since the presidential election, though the opposition political twins have also alleged poll-rigging.

Kim Young Sam, runner-up in the presidential election, and third-place finisher Kim Dae Jung, had initially threatened to organize a national struggle to unseat Roh as president-elect.

They later withdrew the threat and publicly admitted that their pre-election split was the main reason for the opposition’s failure to end “military rule.”