SOUTHERN KOREA : Personalities, Not Ideology, Issue in Presidential Election

Regional antipathies, personal feuds and a struggle for presidential power--but not democracy--will be at issue when South Korean voters cast ballots for a National Assembly election March 24.

Campaigning, already raging, officially begins next Saturday.

Democracy vs. authoritarian rule--an issue that dominated elections for the 299-seat unicameral legislature from the early 1970s through 1988--won’t figure prominently this time. President Roh Tae Woo’s democratic reforms, although imperfect, pushed it aside. Nearly 60% of voters polled are now concerned about the economy.

The election, viewed as a preview of a presidential vote in December, boils down to a power struggle--the opposition vs. Roh’s forces, and Roh’s forces feuding among themselves. “In Korean politics, no one really takes party platforms seriously,” said Prof. Cho Chang Hyon of Hanyang University.

Roh, limited constitutionally to one term, steps down Feb. 25, 1993.

BACKGROUND--In June, 1987, massive street protests against the anointment of Roh as handpicked successor to the authoritarian President Chun Doo Hwan won middle-class support. As opposition demands for democracy threatened to force Seoul to give up staging the 1988 Olympics, Roh responded by promising sweeping reforms, including a direct presidential election. Six months later, he won a 37% plurality, thanks to a three-way split among the opposition--the first-ever peaceful and democratic transfer of power here.

The same four-way race left Roh with only 40% of the seats in the last National Assembly election in 1988. He turned the political structure upside down in 1990 by persuading two of his 1987 presidential opponents, Kim Young Sam and Kim Jong Pil, to combine their forces into a new ruling Democratic Liberal Party, producing its current holding of 70% of the assembly seats.

UPDATE--As export-obsessed South Koreans watched a trade surplus turn into a $10-billion deficit and inflation climb to 10% last year, voters who five years ago condemned a too-strong president charged that Roh was too weak.

South Korea’s historical regional enmities are being played out in today’s politics. The southwest is the stronghold of Kim Dae Jung, a twice-defeated presidential candidate who still leads the main opposition party. Meanwhile, there is regional support for Kim Young Sam in the southeast and for Kim Jong Pil in central Chunchon.

PLAYERS--The key figures:

Kim Young Sam, 64, who fought authoritarian rulers for two decades, now finds himself fighting to win the ruling party’s nomination. Most of the party’s members dislike him but are split over alternatives. How many of Kim’s personal followers are elected will be a key to his winning the nomination.

Kim Dae Jung, 68, the often jailed and persecuted opposition leader under authoritarian rule of the past, retains unshakable support in the Cholla, or southwest, region.

Multimillionaire Chung Ju Yung, 76, founder of the 42-company Hyundai conglomerate. Slapped with a $181-million fine for evading taxes on the transfer to his six sons of stock in Hyundai companies, Chung, in effect, told Roh, “You’re not going to kick me around any more,” Prof. Cho said.

OUTLOOK--”The mood of the electorate is to check and balance the government,” said Nam Jae Hee, a ruling party politician. “Impossible,” he said of the Democratic Liberal Party’s chances of winning a two-thirds majority needed to amend the constitution. The reading: less than 60% of the seats.