South Korean Politics Remain a Passion in L.A. : Campaign: Many immigrants are participating in the presidential election even though they cannot vote.

It is not an unusual scenario for a presidential election year in Los Angeles: hundreds of volunteers working late into the night in makeshift storefront campaign offices, people engaging in passionate political debates and rich supporters contributing thousands of dollars to bolster their candidates’ chances.

This contest, however, turns on who will be the next president of South Korea, where most of the election fanatics have not lived for years.

Nonetheless, in Southern California--home to the largest number of Koreans outside Asia--the South Korean presidential election is not an abstract exercise in democracy 7,000 miles away.

“Koreans may have left Korea physically, but their hearts are still over there,” said K. W. Lee, editor of the Korea Times English Edition in Los Angeles. Because more than 80% of them are Korean-born, people of Korean ancestry in the United States live with one foot here and one foot in their ancestral land, he said.

As a result, even though most of the campaign workers here cannot vote because they are either U.S. citizens or permanent residents, many feel that they have more at stake in the outcome of Friday’s election than they did in the U.S. presidential face-off.

Election news fills Korean-language newspapers, television and radio broadcasts. The Korean-language news broadcast on Channel 18 devotes nearly half an hour to Korean election news each night. And political talk dominates many conversations in Koreatown restaurants, bars, shops and churches.

The connection is fueled by regular visits to the homeland, a stream of visiting relatives and friends and a sense many Koreans have that they will never be fully integrated into the mainstream.

There are about 145,000 Koreans and Korean-Americans in Los Angeles County. With several direct daily flights from Los Angeles International Airport to Seoul on two Korean airlines, the Los Angeles-Seoul link remains strong.

“There is a phrase for this Korean phenomenon of looking always toward home--it’s called gwi so bon neung, “ said Tong S. Suhr, a prominent Korean-American attorney in Los Angeles and a student of Korean classics. Suhr, who has lived in the United States almost 40 years, said he does not get too excited about politics in Korea anymore, but he can understand why it is important to the newer immigrants, who make up the bulk of Los Angeles’ Korean population here.

“To a Korean immigrant, Korea is like chin-jong (your parents’ home) and America is like shi-jib (the in-law’s place),” said sociologist Eui Young Yu of Cal State L.A., who is one of the nation’s foremost authorities on Los Angeles’ Koreatown. “Many Koreans in L.A. visit Korea once or twice a year and continue their relationship as one would visit your parents’ home after marriage.”

This election is a turning point for South Korea because it is the first time in three decades that there is no candidate from the military. No matter who wins, it will mean the first non-military leader since 1961, when Gen. Park Chung Hee seized power in a coup and ruled with an iron hand until he was assassinated by a confidante in 1979.

In the aftermath of the Park assassination, South Korea had a chance for democracy, but opposition leaders fought among themselves to become the nation’s next leader. Meanwhile, Gen. Chun Doo Hwan consolidated his power and seized the reins of government. Like his predecessor, Chun revised the constitution, doing away with direct presidential election, and eliminated all opposition to his authoritarian rule.

Five years ago, faced with mass demonstrations and the fear that the 1988 Olympics would be jeopardized without liberalization, Chun held the first popular election in 16 years. But he did so only after making sure his protege, Roh Tae Woo, was the ruling party’s candidate.

This is the 14th presidential election since South Korea was liberated from Japanese colonial rule in 1945. Before it was annexed by Japan in 1910, Korea, which had the ancient name Chosun (the Land of the Morning Calm), was a kingdom.

The race this year mirrors the recent three-way showdown in the United States, offering two mainstream politicians who have been perennial presidential candidates and a third, a corporate tycoon and a political novice. They are:

* Kim Young Sam, 65, a moderate who is the ruling Democratic Liberal Party’s nominee. His campaign theme is maintaining economic and political stability.

* Kim Dae Jung, 67, a liberal who represents the opposition Democratic Party. He says South Korea needs new leadership.

* Chung Ju Yung, 77, a conservative candidate of the United People’s Party who espouses sound economic policy. The founder of the giant Hyundai industrial empire, Chung is often compared to Ross Perot, a comparison he dislikes.

“For one thing, I was successful in many, many industries,” Chung likes to say. Chung is also wealthier, with a personal fortune estimated at $4 billion to $6 billion.

There are five minor party candidates, who are all but ignored by the Korean media. One is a woman--Kim Oak Sun--a veteran lesbian politician whose trademark is wearing a man’s suit and hairdo. Others are lawmakers Lee Jong Chan of the New Korea Party and Park Chan Jong of the New Political Party. The remaining two candidates are independents: Paik Kee Wan and Lee Byung Ho.

The race is expected to be a close battle between the two Kims, who, after decades of being on the outside fighting military dictators, became rivals in the 1987 presidential election and split the vote, handing the election to Roh. The two Kims lost much support when they refused to agree on a united opposition candidate.

The two Kims would do South Korea a favor by “going fishing and never returning,” one columnist said after the election, in a phrase that quickly became widely used.

Unlike U.S. presidential election campaigns, South Korean contests are short affairs because election rules limit campaigning to the month before the election. But they are no less intense.

Dr. Chang Hee Lee, a Korean-American psychiatrist who practices in the city of Orange, said politics has always been a favorite Korean pastime. “Koreans are political creatures,” Lee said.

In Southern California, a number of factors have raised the already charged atmosphere to a feverish pitch. Even though many people of Korean ancestry cannot vote, the lack of suffrage does not reduce their passion about the election.

“Koreans do everything with gusto,” said K. W. Lee. “It’s a necessary escape for so many immigrants from the drudgery and danger they face every day running markets and liquor stores.”

Lee and Suhr said the Korean-language media encourage the Los Angeles-Seoul connection by providing so much news about politics in Korea.

“I think it’s in their subconscious,” Suhr said. “I think the ethnic media’s greatest appeal is looking back to nostalgia. It helps Korean immigrants maintain their sanity. I’ve seen my cousins literally fall asleep in their chairs while reading Korean newspapers.”

Tom Byun, managing editor of the Los Angeles-based Hankook Ilko, has two correspondents in the newspaper’s home office in Seoul working exclusively on election coverage for the Los Angeles edition. Last week he sent Pyong Yong Min, a veteran editorial writer and columnist, to Seoul to write about the election with an eye toward the Korean-American community.

The paper will run a special edition and, using its sister radio station, Radio Hankook, will deliver results throughout election night and the next morning--something it did not do for the U.S. presidential election.

The long-distance involvement also provides a sense of roots, especially for the first generation, said psychiatrist Lee, who is active in Republican politics.

Campaign supporters concentrate their efforts on overseas telephone calls and letter-writing campaigns to persuade family and friends to vote for their candidate. They also donate money to campaigns.

That involvement spills over into their daily routines; political talk permeates business social interactions for the month before the election.

Koreatown real estate agent George Hwang said many people are “sick and tired of the two Kims. If Chung Ju Yung were a little younger, he would make a good president. He is a doer.”

Michel Bang, a Koreatown furniture store owner who is chairman of Chung’s support committee in Los Angeles, says age is irrelevant in his candidate’s case.

“The two Kims have nothing new to offer,” he said. “They’ve spent the last 30 years fighting (as dissidents) and they’re good at it, but they don’t know economics. They don’t know how to get the work done.”

Two prosperous Koreatown dentists, Dae In Kang and Young Song Lee, are managing the two Kims’ campaigns in Southern California, aided by hundreds of volunteers.

Song Lee, who supports Kim Young Sam, said his candidate offers the stability that is important to South Korea. Lee also said his candidate provides the experience that is crucial in a peaceful transfer of power.

“We’ve sent more than 45,000 aerograms and 4,000 mailers to Korea,” said Lee. As a U.S. citizen, Lee cannot vote for his candidate, but he wants to be involved because what happens in Korea affects Koreans in America. “We have relatives, friends and classmates in Korea,” Lee said.

Among Koreans, childhood friendships and relationships developed as students form the basis for lifetime associations. After family background, student friendships are probably the most important factor in Korean life. In a sense, Koreans have two sets of families: relatives and classmates.

Lee, like other supporters of the South Korean presidential candidates, is waging a campaign to persuade friends and relatives to vote for their choice. Kang, also a U.S. citizen, said Kim Dae Jung is the best candidate for Korean-Americans.

During his exile in the United States in the mid-1980s, Kim organized a support network through the Korean Institute for Human Rights, of which Kang is the western region director.

Kang said that if Kim Dae Jung is elected there will be an Office of Overseas Koreans established within one year to help Koreans abroad, including the 1 million who reside in the United States. He also said that Kim promises to get a law passed that would grant dual citizenship to overseas Koreans.

“So many Koreans don’t become U.S. citizens because they don’t want to lose their property rights in Korea,” Kang said. “If you become a U.S. citizen you have to sell your house within a year.”

Kang charged that the South Korean government’s “unfair policies” toward Korean-Americans have the effect of slowing their participation in the American mainstream. Koreans with means look back to Korea instead of concentrating on settling down here “because their money is over there,” he said.

Lee countered that it is easy for Kim Dae Jung to make promises because he is an opposition candidate. But Kim Young Sam must be more realistic. He said Kim Young Sam has been looking into changing laws to enable Korean-Americans to enjoy property rights in Korea. “I believe the Korean government should permit us to own a personal residence--be it a condo or a private home,” he said. “Candidate Kim Young Sam agrees.”

Myung Han Kim, the 91-year-old owner of a rice mill, has been an avid supporter of Kim Young Sam.

“I am an old man and I don’t have money to give him, but I support him with my heart and mind,” said Kim, who still puts in a full day of work at his business on Olympic Boulevard, which he started when Koreatown was just beginning to take shape.

During the Korean Festival Parade in September, Kim helped publicize his candidate by paying for a float. Poised next to Kim on the float was a 12-by-14-foot picture of President Bush and Kim Young Sam side by side.

The elder Kim hopes that his candidate will not suffer Bush’s fate.

Win or lose, Koreans will not go quietly this election season.

“They call Koreans the Irish of the East,” Suhr said. “Koreans love to sing, drink and argue. What better way to argue than through politics.”