Opposition Thwarts New S. Korea Chief

New President Kim Dae Jung has been said to hold a ninth-degree black belt in South Korean politics. But he took an unceremonious kick Wednesday when, just hours after he took office, the opposition boycotted parliament in rejection of his nominee for prime minister.

Stocks sagged 4.5% and the public sighed at the specter of a political conflict that could sap the new president’s strength when he should be devoting himself to tackling South Korea’s financial crisis, so severe it has required the intervention of outsiders like the International Monetary Fund, or IMF.

Under the Korean Constitution, the prime minister must appoint the Cabinet. Until the deadlock is broken, Kim thus cannot name his new leadership team, which had been scheduled to be announced today. But analysts predicted that the stalemate will not last long, since the public appears to be siding with the president and his nominee, conservative Kim Jong Pil.

“It’s a game of chicken among factional leaders” jockeying for power inside the opposition Grand National Party, or GNP, said Moon Chung In, a political science professor at Yonsei University. Moon called the boycott “stupid.”

Others said a face-saving solution will probably be found once the GNP, which controls 161 of the 299 seats in the National Assembly, has demonstrated to the new president that it will not be a pushover.

This morning, Kim spokesman Park Jie Won said the president had invited GNP leaders to a summit Friday to try to resolve the dispute.

Kim last fall had publicly promised the prime minister’s post to Kim Jong Pil, the United Liberal Democrats’ party leader, as part of a coalition pact that gave Kim Dae Jung his narrow victory in the December election. But the opposition has rejected Kim Jong Pil as “tainted” because of his role as one of the architects of a 1961 military coup in which his uncle, Park Chung Hee, seized power.

Still, a poll published Wednesday in the Dong Ah Ilbo newspaper found that more than 57% of those surveyed approved of Kim Jong Pil as prime minister. “He’s a smart guy, maybe even smarter than DJ,” as Kim Dae Jung is known, explained a taxi driver sporting a fresh crew cut that he said was a sign of his determination to live frugally and do his part to overcome the national financial crisis. “He’s very experienced. This is just what we need for the IMF era.”

Members of the GNP blamed the president for picking the fight, noting that he went ahead with the nomination despite their request that he select an alternative--preferably someone with a background in finance. “President Kim has totally ignored the voice of the opposition,” GNP floor leader Lee Sang Deuk told the South Korean media.

Moon, the professor, faulted Kim Jong Pil for refusing to withdraw his nomination, forcing the president into a potentially damaging battle with the National Assembly on his very first day in office.

While the battle appears to be about ideology--namely, Kim Jong Pil’s role in the old regime--the behind-the-scenes jockeying is all about raw political power. And it is producing strange alliances.

The president’s camp had been hoping for a secret ballot in the National Assembly, which they believed might have produced enough votes from GNP conservatives sympathetic to Kim Jong Pil to squeak the nomination through. The boycott apparently was aimed at avoiding such defections.

And though the GNP is split into factions, it did muster 158 members to a party caucus that agreed unanimously to the boycott. “Their main worry is that once JP [Kim Jong Pil] becomes prime minister, many of their supporters will turn from the GNP to JP,” said Kim Keun Tae, a lawmaker from the president’s camp.

A former dissident who was tortured during former President Chun Doo Hwan’s rule, Kim Keun Tae had been a longtime foe of Kim Jong Pil, who once ran the dreaded Korean Central Intelligence Agency. Still, in loyalty to his president, who cannot be seen to be reneging on the promised nomination, Kim Keun Tae has been lobbying the former democrats in the opposition to support his old enemy. “They said to me, ‘Even you?’ ” Kim Keun Tae said wryly.

Park, the president’s spokesman, said outgoing Prime Minister Koh Kun will be asked to stay in office until the dispute is resolved.