A Coming of Age in South Korea

Kim Young Sam has been elected president of South Korea, succeeding Roh Tae Woo. Kim’s election can scarcely be called dramatic, but in a way that is just what is most interesting about it. As the candidate generally favored by business interests, he was opposed by Kim Dae Jung, whose supporters were a coalition of workers, dissidents, the young and the residents of his home province, Kwangju. Running as a potential spoiler was the Ross Perot of Korea, Chung Ju Yung, billionaire founder of the Hyundai corporation.

Kim Dae Jung’s quest for the presidency began in the 1960s under the dictatorial regime of Park Chung Hee, whose henchmen attempted to murder him. His quest continued through the regime of Chun Doo Hwan, who sentenced him to death. It has now almost certainly ended with this defeat by Kim Young Sam.

By the time Chun left office and genuine democracy came to Korea in the late 1980s, Kim Dae Jung had begun to seem, however poignantly, a figure from the past. The new Korea, technocratic as well as democratic, felt more at ease with the younger, more personable and ideologically more muted Kim Young Sam. Kim Young Sam might have won the presidency in 1987, when the last presidential election took place, had the loyalty of Kim Dae Jung’s supporters not been strong enough to divide the democratic vote and throw the election, against the wishes of both, to Roh Tae Woo, an ex-general tied to the Chun regime.

This time, loyalty and the honor due a courageous veteran seem to have counted for less. With 96% of the votes counted, Kim Dae Jung was winning only 34% of the vote to Kim Young Sam’s 42%. The older candidate’s attempt to repackage himself as a candidate with a forward-looking economic agenda as well as a democratic political agenda seems to have been too little too late, and he is now expected to retire from politics. Meanwhile, Chung Ju Yung’s attempt to outflank Kim Young Sam on the right attracted only 16% of the vote, far less than expected.

The variables in this campaign are familiar ones to Americans, if we leave aside the possibility, not yet quite to be ruled out in Korea, of a military coup should the “wrong” candidate win. The military was quiet during this campaign. Equally quiet, though active behind the scenes, were the platoons of young activists (now a bit less young) who took to the streets in such numbers and to such effect when Korean democracy was in its birth throes.

The picture, in short, is that of a healthy, vigorous, functioning democracy. The election’s losers, no less than the winners, are prepared to accept the result. And the army (knock on wood) has had no vote at all.