Incoming Leader Calling Shots in S. Korea’s ‘Two-Headed Presidency’

Outgoing President Kim Young Sam has nearly three weeks left on the job, but he has virtually been erased from the picture. In what must be one of the most unusual political transitions in democratic history, the leader has effectively been deposed ahead of time.

While incoming President Kim Dae Jung, who was elected in December, is running the country, what is the outgoing Kim up to? He could be working on his going-away party, but with a popularity rating that has plummeted below 10%, it wouldn’t take long to fill out a guest list.

“I don’t know what he does,” confessed one South Korean government official, when asked how Kim Young Sam, a once-popular opposition leader elected in 1992 as the nation’s first civilian president in three decades, is filling his days until the Feb. 25 hand-over.

In an effort to maintain the appearance of a more traditional changing of the guard, South Korea’s incoming and outgoing administrations have created a bizarre political animal known here as the “two-headed presidency.”

The two presidents, commonly referred to as Y.S. and D.J. since they share the ubiquitous Korean surname of Kim, hold a weekly meeting and photo opportunity and have formed a joint commission to tackle the troublesome issue of renegotiating the country’s $153-billion foreign debt.

In recent weeks, the South Korean media have begun treating the two governments as one: “2 Kims Ask U.S. to Help Speed Up Delivery of G-7 Money,” “2 Kims Welcome ‘Voluntary’ Reform by Tycoons,” headlines have said.

Among South Korea’s political and business elite, however, there is no question who is really in charge, said associate professor Heemin Kim, a Korea specialist at Florida State University. If Kim Young Sam were to launch a war or strike out on his own, it would be a very lonely pursuit.

“I don’t think he’s in a position to influence anybody,” said the Florida political scientist. “He’s completely discredited.”

Even the National Security Planning Agency, the once-feared South Korean secret service, is already reporting to the president-elect. That, of course, represents a supreme irony since Kim Dae Jung was public enemy No. 1 under the military-backed governments.

From his modest home in Seoul, the president-elect has a social schedule worthy of the most powerful world leader: one day, a meeting with International Monetary Fund chief Michel Camdessus, a few days later a discussion with Defense Secretary William S. Cohen followed by meetings with U.S. congressmen and business leaders. He has already established a fully operational shadow government, complete with foreign media handlers, international finance specialists and political spin-meisters.

Miles away at the official presidential residence, the Blue House, the incumbent president, an anti-corruption crusader who once enjoyed approval ratings of more than 90%, is the invisible man. Even when he sees the same dignitaries as his soon-to-be successor, the talks often go unreported in the local press.

And life after the Blue House holds little promise of improvement. His closest friends have already shifted loyalties. When the president requested volunteers to accompany him after he leaves office, he was forced to appoint several unhappy aides because no one stepped forward, according to the Korean media.

Even his former neighbors in Sangdo-dong, fearing disruptions in the upscale Seoul neighborhood, have asked that he not return to his home but retire instead to Koje Island, an isolated spot where his family operates a fish farm. That idea was discarded because of security risks.

Fading away into obscurity anywhere will not be easy to do for the incumbent. The incoming government has already agreed to investigate the role played by the president, senior Cabinet members and central bank officials in last fall’s financial meltdown and prosecute anyone found guilty of wrongdoing.

And he is unlikely to get much sympathy from other members of Korea’s not-so-exclusive club of disgraced politicians: It was his anti-corruption campaign that resulted in the 1996 convictions of former South Korean Presidents Chun Doo Hwan and Roh Tae Woo on charges of mutiny, bribery and treason. Last month, the two Kims agreed to pardon the two former generals as a step toward national reconciliation.

Among South Koreans facing a bleak winter of rising prices and worsening unemployment, there are even some who have begun voicing nostalgia for Chun and Roh, whose decade of heavy-handed governance was also a time of expanding prosperity.

No similar reservoir of goodwill exists for Kim Young Sam, who appears to have guaranteed himself a place in history as the man who led the world’s 11th-largest economy into ruin. “Kim Young Sam is gone forever” from politics, said Florida professor Kim.

Iritani was recently on assignment in Seoul. Chi Jung Nam of The Times’ Seoul Bureau contributed to this report.