ELECTIONS : Seoul Weans Self of Military Leaders : No more generals. South Korea’s next president will likely be pure politician.

When the ruling party of President Roh Tae Woo, the third former general to rule South Korea, selects its candidate on Tuesday for a December presidential election, it will be choosing between two leaders, neither of whom rose above the rank of major in the army.

The favorite is Kim Young Sam, 64. He spent 36 years in the opposition ranks before joining Roh two years ago to give Roh a majority in the National Assembly.

His opponent is Lee Jong Chan, 56. He won a reputation as a moderate, even though he supported Chun Doo Hwan, the authoritarian former president.

Late Friday, Lee was threatening to drop out of the race in protest at Kim’s refusals to engage him in an open debate. Lee also complained of behind-the-scenes maneuvering by Roh in favor of Kim.

Should he leave the race, Kim would win by acclamation at the convention.

With an eye on the third-party candidacy of billionaire Chung Ju Yung--the 76-year-old founder of the Hyundai conglomerate, who had himself formally nominated Friday and has condemned Roh’s economic performance--both Kim and Lee have promised to curb inflation and restore black ink to South Korea’s trade. But mostly they have attacked each other.

Lee has declared that a Kim candidacy will rekindle a longstanding “civil war-like” battle of emotions between the Kyongsang region in the southeast and the Cholla area in the southwest, home of the established opposition’s likely candidate, Kim Dae Jung, 68.

But if Kim Young Sam loses the nomination, he is widely expected to bolt the party and take with him his bastion of support in his native Pusan.

The choice boils down to Kim’s fame versus Lee’s freshness, and Kim’s roots in the Kyongsang region versus Lee’s “neutral” home in Seoul.

Born on Koje Island near Pusan as the only son among six children of a well-to-do fisherman, Kim has spent most of his life aiming at the presidency.

Upon graduation from Seoul National University, where he studied philosophy, he went to work as a politician’s secretary. And except for a brief stint in an army propaganda team during the Korean War, he has never done any other kind of work.

In 1954, at age 25, he was the youngest candidate ever elected to the National Assembly. In 1971, he lost a bid to Kim Dae Jung to become the opposition’s presidential candidate. In 1979, Park Chung Hee ousted him from the National Assembly after Kim urged the United States to intervene in Korean politics to implement democracy.

In 1985, he joined forces with Kim Dae Jung to fight Chun’s oppression, saying, “You cannot stop the dawn from arriving by wrenching the rooster’s neck.”

But in 1987, the ambitions of the two Kims clashed. Both ran for president, handing Roh a 37% plurality victory. Kim Young Sam’s political party wound up third in strength in the new National Assembly. With his fortunes as an opposition leader waning, in 1990 he joined Roh in what was viewed as a bid for this year’s presidential nomination.

Lee Jong Chan didn’t enter politics until 1980, when Chun appointed him to a junta-controlled National Assembly. A graduate of the Military Academy, Lee spent 15 years with the Korean CIA both during and after his army career, achieving the rank of major.

Lee was ousted as the ruling party’s floor leader for opposing a Chun plan to station police on college campuses. But Chun later named him secretary general of the ruling party.