S. Korean President Bids Contrite Farewell

In an extraordinarily blunt and contrite farewell address to the nation today, outgoing President Kim Young Sam apologized for a five-year term that has proved a bitter disappointment to many South Koreans.

“I cannot but admit frankly that my efforts fell short of your expectations,” Kim said in a speech from the Blue House, South Korea’s White House.

“My heart aches because of the heavy responsibility that weighs on my mind whenever I think of your suffering because of the current foreign exchange and financial crisis,” Kim said. “I extend my consolation to you from the bottom of my heart.”

The 70-year-old president also endorsed his longtime rival, Kim Dae Jung, who will be inaugurated Wednesday, saying the president-elect “is more than able to restore stability and growth to the nation” and urging all citizens to support him.

Kim Young Sam came into office in 1993 with 90% public approval ratings. The nation’s first civilian president in three decades, he initially delighted South Koreans by such austere habits as jogging each morning and serving visitors to the Blue House a humble lunch of noodles, in stark contrast with the lavish lifestyle of his predecessors.

He jailed corrupt business leaders and politicians by the score but then saw his own administration rocked by a corruption scandal that ended with the graft conviction of his own son. He promised sweeping economic reforms, yet his policies proved too inept and superficial to cure the cronyism and economic distortions that finally landed South Korea under International Monetary Fund receivership in November.

“I have come to feel acutely the meaning of the saying, ‘Reforms are more difficult than revolution,’ ” Kim said. “Our reforms lagged far behind changes in the rest of the world.”

Kim Dae Jung has promised not to wreak vengeance on his longtime political foes, but only to expose the truth of South Korea’s troubled modern history. The press has recently reported a number of embarrassing revelations, including that one of Kim Young Sam’s senior aides allegedly illegally handed private financial data on Kim Dae Jung to rival presidential candidate Lee Hoi Chang.