An Outsider Steps to the Front

Presidential elections in South Korea used to be mockeries of the democratic process. Intimidation and control of the electoral machinery by the ruling clique guaranteed that power would remain in the hands of the man or the party that held it. Change came only in 1992, when the freest election in Korea’s history ended 32 years of military-dominated rule and brought Kim Young Sam to office. Now the possibility of further dramatic change looms. When South Koreans go to the polls Dec. 18 they might elect as president Kim Dae Jung, who has spent his entire political career in opposition, a good part of it under threat of death from his enemies.

Opinion polls show Kim Dae Jung leading in a field of five, with between 30% and 36% of the vote. The standing of the governing New Korea Party’s candidate, Lee Hoi Chang, plummeted with revelations that his two draft-age sons had apparently evaded military service by starving themselves to below the minimum weight requirement. But Kim himself may not be untainted by scandal. Opponents allege, so far without offering proof, that he has amassed tens of millions of dollars in laundered donations from big businesses.

Kim’s popularity reflects frustration with the ruling party and its outgoing president--who can’t succeed himself--but also, perhaps, a new tolerance. Kim was long seen as chiefly a regional candidate with a power base in the underdeveloped Cholla provinces, an area that Seoul sophisticates traditionally treat as the butt of jokes and insults. The polls suggest a much broader support. That doesn’t mean, of course, that the election is all locked up. Two or more candidates could form a coalition and overcome the one-third or so of the vote Kim holds. Meanwhile, Kim’s emergence as the clear front-runner stands as a tribute to his courage and certainly his persistence, as well as an indication that South Korea’s new democracy is working.