Irked Presidential Hopeful May Bolt S. Korea’s Governing Party

South Korea’s ruling party stood today on the brink of a split-up as it prepared to elect Kim Young Sam, 64, a former opposition leader, as its standard-bearer in a December presidential election.

Kim’s only rival, Lee Jong Chan, 56, who said Sunday he was bowing out of today’s convention battle for the presidential nomination, indicated strongly Monday that he would run for president independently, creating a four-way race.

“We lost a small battle, but we will certainly win the war,” Lee, a national assemblyman from Seoul known as a political moderate, told a meeting of his supporters. Asked by reporters if his action marked “the beginning of a new political career,” he responded: “Yes, you can interpret it that way.”

Although Lee was given little chance of winning an independent bid for the presidency, a defection by Lee and his supporters from the Democratic Liberal Party would once again deny President Roh Tae Woo control of the National Assembly and damage Kim’s chances of winning in December.

In 1990, after ruling for two years without a majority, Roh persuaded opposition leaders Kim Young Sam and Kim Jong Pil to join forces and give him control of 72% of the Assembly seats. But after a March election, the party wound up with its present razor-thin two-seat majority.

“The ruling Democratic Liberal Party has just lost 1 million votes (for president),” exclaimed Lee Byung Kyu, secretary to Hyundai Group founder Chung Ju Yung, 76, in anticipation of Lee’s defection from the ruling party. Chung, who obtained his party’s presidential nomination Friday, commented, “I don’t understand those people” in the ruling party.

“It looks like a four-way race,” said Kim Dae Jung, 68, two-time presidential loser who is expected to win his opposition Democratic Party’s nomination.

On Monday, Lee again indirectly accused Roh of secretly backing Kim Young Sam while conducting a “simulated competition . . . that is a sin against history.” He declared that he considered today’s convention null and void and would not recognize Kim Young Sam as a legally chosen candidate.

Lee boycotted the convention but allowed his supporters to make their own choice of whether to attend. All but 69 of the 6,882 delegates cast ballots. Despite his boycott, Lee failed to go through procedures to withdraw his name from candidacy.