NEWS ANALYSIS : Election Clears the Way for a New Era in Seoul : Politics: The defeat of Korean opposition chief Kim Dae Jung opens a door for the next generation of leaders.

The election of ruling Democratic Liberal Party leader Kim Young Sam as president has reshaped South Korea’s political geography, clearing the way for a new generation of leaders to begin positioning themselves for power, analysts said Saturday.

Kim’s victory not only ushered in South Korea’s first civilian government since Park Chung Hee seized power in a military coup in 1961, it also ended three decades of political domination by the “two Kims”--the president-elect and the man he defeated and forced into retirement, Democratic Party leader Kim Dae Jung. Kim Young Sam prevailed over the latter by a vote of 42% to 34%.

The decision by Kim Dae Jung, 68, to end his 40-year political career leaves a giant vacuum in the opposition forces, but it also provides room for other opposition members to grow into positions of influence. That could potentially swing the party somewhat toward the left since Kim’s iron fist kept its more liberal members under yoke, analysts said.

“In Korean politics, there have been only two giant trees called Kim under which no other trees could grow,” a Western diplomat said.

At the same time, the surprisingly weak showing by former Hyundai Chairman Chung Ju Yung, who finished with 16%, may increase pressure within his fledgling United People’s Party for the 77-year-old tycoon to step aside and begin grooming successors. Without Chung’s charisma, party members may decide to merge with the Democratic Party as the best bet for survival, thereby setting up a new party run by people in their early to mid-50s, said Han Sung Joo, political science professor at Korea University.

And within the ruling Democratic Liberal Party, “this is the last of Mr. Kim Young Sam’s generation,” Han said.

For their part, many of the potential new leaders make no secret of their eagerness to step out of the wings.

“The two Kims contributed to the nation’s political development by struggling against military rule, but they also became barriers to the development itself,” said Lee Bu Young, 50, a Democratic Party legislator and former newspaper editor who was purged and jailed by the Chun Doo Hwan regime.

“They dominated the whole political scene in South Korea for three decades. It was a dictatorship, even if the party’s name was Democratic,” Lee said. “You cannot imagine how we have been choked, suffocated even in the opposition party. We could not speak out; we just had to follow the leader.”

Han predicted that the Democratic Party would enter an era of collective leadership. Lee forecast short-term turmoil, as more liberal opposition members would finally have the freedom to lobby for less U.S. military intervention, abolition of the National Security Law and other sensitive measures.

Lee said two likely contenders for Democratic Party leadership would be Kim Sang Hyon, a formidable intellect and shrewd politician who has drifted between alliances with both Kims, and Lee Ki Taek, a principled moderate who refused to join Kim Young Sam in his 1990 merger with President Roh Tae Woo’s ruling party.

On the other hand, Yonsei University political science professor Ahn Byung Joon said, South Korea may move toward a “major party democracy” similar to those of Japan and Singapore, where elections are held but don’t produce a turnover in power. Such democracies are common in Asia because the Confucian tradition values stability and concession over confrontation, he said.

Should Kim Young Sam meet the people’s expectations for a reinvigorated economy, chances are the Democratic Liberal Party will become entrenched, he said.

On that score, the president-elect is ready to retreat from Roh’s focus on foreign policy in favor of national economic interests, said Suh Sang Mok, one of Kim’s top economic aides. While Roh opened relations with China and the former Soviet Union in his policy to make friends with Socialist regimes, Kim will strengthen economic relations with traditional allies such as the United States and Japan, he said.

Kim will also aim to lower interest rates to single digits from the current 14%, promote financial deregulation, increase investment in technology and decrease the bureaucratic red tape, Suh said.

Kim is expected to be firmer with North Korea than Roh has been and unwilling to cooperate in economic or cultural exchanges without an agreement on mutual inspections of nuclear facilities, Yonsei University’s Ahn said.