South Korea’s Perennial Candidate Takes the Lead

He has survived four decades in the political wilderness, three assassination attempts, one kidnapping, one death sentence, six years in prison, 10 years under house arrest or in exile, and the enmity of four South Korean leaders.

Now Kim Dae Jung appears poised to become South Korea’s next president.

In a reversal of fortune that has amazed even members of his own staff, the 73-year-old opposition leader climbed to the top of the opinion polls in August and has since widened his lead over the other five candidates. The presidential election is nine weeks away.

Alarmed, the ruling New Korea Party last week rolled out the best-oiled cannon in the South Korean political arsenal: corruption charges. But the big gun appears to be backfiring.

Four days after the party held a news conference to accuse Kim of accepting millions of dollars in secret slush-fund contributions during his 1992 presidential campaign, his popularity rating had actually risen slightly, to about 36%. Support for the ruling party candidate, former Supreme Court Justice Lee Hoi Chang, had plummeted to about 18%.

“Our people know that if Kim Dae Jung received 1 million won [the Korean currency], the ruling party received 50 to 100 times that,” the opposition leader said in an interview Tuesday. Accepting political contributions was perfectly legal, he said, adding, “I have never committed any illegal action.”

Nevertheless, the ruling party announced Tuesday that it is calling for prosecutors to investigate roughly $40 million deposited in the bank accounts of Kim’s relatives.

Speaking at the headquarters of his opposition National Congress for New Politics, Kim quoted Abraham Lincoln and explained in fluent English how he believes that President Nixon’s detente policy could be applied to North Korea.

He argued that his views on how to handle North Korea--don’t corner leader Kim Jong Il; build trust through mutual guarantees that neither Korea will attack or try to subvert the other--are closer to the Clinton administration’s thinking than the hard line taken by President Kim Young Sam.

“I am not 100% optimistic, but I am never pessimistic about this problem,” Kim Dae Jung said. “I believe we can manage the North Korean situation with close cooperation with the U.S. and Japan.”

In domestic politics, Kim, a devout Christian who has a painting of an open Bible hanging next to his desk, declared that he has already forgiven an old nemesis, now-jailed former President Chun Doo Hwan. Offering an olive branch to his former pro-democracy partner and rival, Kim Young Sam, Kim even hinted that if he became president he would pardon Kim Young Sam’s son Kim Hyon Chol, who was sentenced to three years in prison Monday for graft and tax evasion. Kim Young Sam is barred constitutionally from seeking another term.

In short, with the presidential election now his to lose, the fiery crusader for democracy is positioning himself as a fatherly, tolerant elder statesman.

The slogan of this, his fourth presidential campaign, is “Kim Dae Jung: a Prepared Leader.” But his opponents are portraying him as an old dissembler past his prime.

Ruling party candidate Lee, who is 62, has promised to make his medical report public and dared Kim to do the same.

“President Mandela, [Chancellor] Adenauer, President De Gaulle and President Reagan were all older than me,” Kim said, referring to past and present leaders of South Africa, West Germany, France and the United States. “My health is quite well.”

Nevertheless, Kim’s age has become a campaign issue, and the ruling party claims he is lying about it. Kim told the Los Angeles Times in 1992 and again Tuesday that he was born Jan. 6, 1924. That means he is now 73 and would be 74 when he assumed the presidency if elected. Last month, however, he was quoted by the New York Times as saying, “In American age, I’m 71.”

Kim said the confusion arose because he was born during the Japanese occupation of Korea and his father, like many others, delayed registering his birth until Dec. 3, 1925, in hopes of postponing conscription as long as possible.

“The point is, he is too old to be president,” said Suh Sang Mok, a lawmaker who is director of planning for the Lee campaign. Suh argued that Kim’s support has been based on regional loyalties and fueled by the big-money politics that South Korea is now trying to shed. “Also, his line has changed. He was left and now he pretends he’s a conservative. He says he’s retiring from politics [after his defeat in 1992] and then he comes back.

“Basically, we think he cannot be trusted.”

Ruling party lawmaker Song Suk Hun levied the charge most bluntly: “Opposition leader Kim is a typically corrupt politician, no different from the imprisoned ex-presidents Chun Doo Hwan and Roh Tae Woo.”

But ruling party opponent Lee’s public standing also has not recovered from the accusation--which he denies--that both his sons may have dodged the draft by dieting to get below the regulation weight.

Lee is running third in the polls, behind Kim and former Kyonggi province Gov. Rhee In Je, who defected from the ruling party and is now running as an independent candidate. Former Seoul Mayor Cho Soon, opposition party leader Kim Jong Pil and a minor labor candidate are also running.

The large number of contenders is seen as likely to splinter the electorate so that Kim Dae Jung--or one of his rivals--could win with little more than a third of the vote, throwing the ruling party out of power for the first time since 1961.

That is, unless some of the fractious candidates can form a coalition. All five political camps are now reportedly out courting potential mergers.

Meanwhile, Kim is trying to expand his lead by offering voters a three-stage plan for Korean reunification, a plan to boost the information industry and a promise to give every Korean student an Internet address by 2000.

Kim also has vowed to prohibit the intelligence services from spying on South Koreans, instead focusing them on external security or economic threats.

While the ruling party seeks to have prosecutors investigate Kim’s alleged slush fund, opposition lawmakers plan to grill the head of the National Security Planning Agency on just how the ruling party came to possess private information about Kim’s alleged donors and bank accounts--information that may not be divulged except by court order.

“Even now it is illegal” for the intelligence services to meddle in politics, Kim said. “But our presidents never applied it.”

Chi Jung Nam of The Times’ Seoul Bureau contributed to this report.