S. Korean President Makes Televised Apology to Nation

In a speech aimed at quelling rising public criticism over the scandals and policy gaffes that have battered his once-charmed administration, South Korean President Kim Young Sam today offered repeated apologies to his people and vowed to redouble efforts to eradicate corruption. But he offered no new specific reforms or measures to revive this nation’s limping economy.

Plagued with “sleepless nights” over the challenge of curing what he calls the “Korean disease” of corruption, Kim took sole blame for the damage and outrage prompted by a financial scandal involving almost $6 billion in questionable loans to Hanbo Iron & Steel Co., South Korea’s second-largest steelmaker, which declared bankruptcy last month.

The scandal had threatened to expose high-level corruption in Kim’s administration, as rumors flew that his close allies--and even his own son--had pressured reluctant bankers to make the astronomical loans to the failing firm in return for secret political donations.

But prosecutors virtually wrapped up their investigation this week with the indictment of 10 people--none of them regarded as high-ranking--and cleared son Kim Hyon Chol of any wrongdoing.

“The whole country is swept up in the agony and sorrow of the Hanbo scandal,” Kim said in his 17-minute nationally televised address, a lifeless presentation that lacked the confidence and determination of his triumphant inaugural speech four years ago. “All blame should be laid on me, on my lack of capability as president. . . . I am prepared to receive any criticism or denunciation from the people.”

Reuters reported today that government officials said Kim’s Cabinet and top officials from his ruling New Korea Party will offer to resign en masse to give him a free hand to reshuffle his administration.

Kim, in the address marking the fourth anniversary of his administration, termed suspicions circulating around his son a “great shame.” If evidence surfaced to prove the allegations true, Kim said, he would make his son bear all legal responsibilities and bar him from further social activities. He hinted that he would exile his son overseas by not allowing him to “stay near me.”

But Kim called on the people to join him in a last-ditch effort to build a “New Korea,” the phrase he introduced in his inaugural address. “We’ll turn this crisis into momentum to get rid of the collusion between politics and business circles, and money politics,” he said.

Kim’s somber address underscored his stunning fall from grace since he was elected as South Korea’s first civilian president in more than three decades. After he took office, he won international acclaim and sky-high public approval ratings by launching an astonishing attack on the corrupt interests that had controlled this nation for decades.

Kim purged the military clique from government, pushed through landmark laws on political reform, jailed more than 1,000 officials for corruption and sent two former presidents--Roh Tae Woo and Chun Doo Hwan--to jail for amassing a $653-million slush fund.

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Now, however, Kim faces rock-bottom public support, revolt within his party and a widespread perception that he has whitewashed the Hanbo scandal using a clique of prosecutors who hail from his region of Pusan-Kyongsang.

He also set off national protests and strikes that caused more than $3 billion in economic damage after his party rammed through controversial revisions to the labor and national security laws in December.

A survey Monday by the Munhwa Ilbo daily newspaper showed that only 18.8% of 1,000 people surveyed supported Kim; 69.5% said he had failed to eradicate corruption and 77.9% believed that his son was involved in the Hanbo scandal.