Korean Media Do About-Face on President-Elect

SEOUL — After decades of watching television programs that often portrayed him as a dangerous radical or Communist sympathizer, South Koreans awoke Friday to find every station broadcasting slick profiles that glorified President-elect Kim Dae Jung.

What a difference a day made for the much-vilified opposition leader, whose first promise was not to perpetuate the political retaliation from which he has so suffered. Even so, in this rapidly democratizing society that still retains some authoritarian tendencies, many suddenly sought to curry his favor.

With soft-focus close-ups of Kim’s beaming face shown to sentimental renditions of his favorite song, and footage of the former dissident as a young democracy fighter and as a kindly grandfather, state-owned and private television networks crossed the line from flattery to hagiography.

“Even though I voted for him, it makes me sick,” said Kim Min Ok, 35, an English teacher and fervent fan of Kim. “The reporters’ attitude changed overnight after the election.”

A supporter of former Supreme Court Justice Lee Hoi Chang, who lost to Kim by just 1.6% of the vote, was even more disgusted by the programs, broadcast in a seemingly endless loop throughout the day.

“I want to emigrate,” businessman Lee Tae Geun, 32, said.

Even one of Kim’s own aides decried the “glorifying” media coverage.

“I was totally appalled to see it,” said Ben Q. Limb, a Korean American who returned from New York to help Kim wage his presidential campaign. “It’s not democratic, and that’s not what Mr. Kim would want.”

Ironically, many citizens and analysts had hailed the South Korean media for its generally impartial coverage of this presidential campaign, seen as the fairest political contest in this nation’s history. In final results announced Friday, Kim won 40.3% of the vote, Lee took 38.7%, and a third-party candidate, Rhee In Je, won 19.2%.

Some television watchers said they were shocked to be told after the election certain basic facts about their new president-elect, a 73-year-old man who has spent more than three decades in public life.

“This is the first time I have ever really seen his life story, or all the hardships he went through,” said Park Ceyong, 25, a Samsung employee whose father worked on the Lee campaign.

“I knew vaguely, but some of the information was new,” she said.

Park said she was not aware of the fact that Kim had excelled in school, even though he holds a master’s degree in economics and a doctorate in political science, was nominated nine times for the Nobel Peace Prize, speaks excellent English and is the author of more than 30 books and publications.

At least one program also reported that Kim’s limp was the result of his car having been struck by a truck “in a mysterious assassination attempt” in 1971. Kim has claimed that the crash was the first of three attempts by government agents to kill him. His version was not reported by the Korean media until now, supporters said.

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The South Korean media were not the only ones who overnight became enamored with the politician who will officially become president Feb. 25.

From the jail cells where they are serving time on corruption and treason charges, former Presidents Chun Doo Hwan and Roh Tae Woo on Friday found new, cloying words for their onetime foe.

In an article in today’s editions of Chosun Ilbo, South Korea’s largest newspaper, Chun, who received a visit from relatives Friday, “had the impression that Kim must have read a lot and studied hard to prepare himself for running the country.”

The article did not mention that Chun had helped ensure that Kim had plenty of time to read by having him sentenced to death in 1980, then keeping him in jail or in exile during most of his presidency.

The newspaper said Roh had elevated Kim to the esteemed status of South African President Nelson Mandela, who liberated his country from the oppressive apartheid system. It quoted his former spokesman, who had just visited Roh in jail, as saying that “he believes the president-elect will become the Mandela of Asia.”

After a lunch meeting today with the president-elect in South Korea’s equivalent of the White House, President Kim Young Sam announced that he had decided to grant a special amnesty to the two former presidents, subject to Cabinet endorsement. Kim Dae Jung had called for the pardons during the campaign.

The two Kims--once comrades in South Korea’s democracy movement--became rivals when they fought a close presidential race in 1992. Their high-stakes political struggle ended with the conviction of Kim Young Sam’s son on corruption charges last year.

But on Friday, Kim Young Sam made clear that he was consigning the rivalry to history. He called on the public to support Kim Dae Jung, promised to consult with the president-elect as often as necessary and pledged his cooperation in ensuring a smooth hand-over of power from the government to the opposition for the first time in the nation’s history.

The outgoing president has already appointed a 25-member transition team, headed by his chief of staff, to brief aides to the president-elect, said Kim Young Sam’s spokesman, Son Woo Hyon.

Kim Dae Jung spent election day receiving congratulatory telephone calls from President Clinton and Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto. He also met with the U.S. ambassador to Seoul, Stephen Bosworth. Kim Dae Jung pointedly paid his respects at the National Cemetery and at the April 19 Memorial, which honors students killed in the massive 1960 protests that forced the ouster of former strongman Syngman Rhee.

For the next three days, Kim will give no interviews and will spend his time in brainstorming sessions to work out policy and personnel matters, said aide Limb, who noted: “The economy is on his mind above everything. I would expect that in a few days he will designate an economist to help him prepare for a meeting with [International Monetary Fund chief Michel] Camdessus.”

In his first postelection speech Friday, Kim Dae Jung pledged to “faithfully implement the agreement with the IMF” that won South Korea a $60-billion global bailout and snatched the nation from the jaws of default earlier this month.

“Reform without pain is not possible,” Kim said, noting that businesses that cannot adjust to an international market economy “shall surely perish because that is the cold, harsh reality of globalization.”

But he vowed that the coming reforms, however painful, will reinvigorate the ailing economy.

“We will show the world that the ‘Miracle on the Han’ is not finished at all,” Kim said.

As part of his efforts to regain the confidence of the international financial community, Kim plans to visit the U.S. before his February inauguration, though dates have not yet been decided, Limb said.

Besides tackling the economic crisis, Kim has vowed to unite a nation revealed by this election to be deeply divided by regional and class animosities. Kim won the presidency by carrying the Western half of his country, the young, the working class and those with high school educations or less. Lee, by contrast, was preferred by Eastern Korea, older and higher-income voters, the well-educated elite and big business.

Kim’s victory “gives me a feeling of insecurity and an afraid feeling, because he’s had a lot of support from the working class, and part of me thinks that our country is going to go down to that level,” said Lee supporter Park, 25. “The high school graduates who work at my company were very happy,” she said. “I think most of the college-educated people preferred Lee.”

Kim is determined to eliminate such rifts.

“I respect and love all regions and all social classes in this nation,” he declared Friday.

Korean presidents have traditionally received a honeymoon of more than a year, not the brief 100 days that American presidents are allotted to make their mark. And the glowing media coverage of Kim--if it lasts--is certain to help.

* LOAN PROPOSAL

South Korea proposed to guarantee up to $20 billion in loans to avert foreign defaults. D1