Amid Row, Vote on S. Korean Premier Is Put Off

South Korea’s parliament adjourned amid shouting and shoving Monday as opposition lawmakers tried to block approval of Kim Jong Pil, President Kim Dae Jung’s coalition partner, as prime minister.

This leaves South Korea at least temporarily in legal limbo at a time when polls show the public wants its new government to move swiftly to tackle the worst economic crisis since the Korean War.

President Kim is expected to name Kim Jong Pil acting prime minister and to pick a shadow Cabinet; technically, though, only the prime minister can name a Cabinet. The constitutionality of naming an acting Cabinet, as well as the legal authority of the new government, will surely be questioned by an opposition apparently determined to clip the wings of the popular new president.

The dispute began even before Kim Dae Jung was sworn in as president Wednesday. It erupted on inauguration day, when the opposition Grand National Party, or GNP, which controls a majority in parliament, boycotted the National Assembly in a bid to force the president to withdraw the nomination of Kim Jong Pil.

The GNP argues that Kim Jong Pil, an architect of a 1961 military coup and founder of the dreaded Korean Central Intelligence Agency, is too “tainted” for the post--though Kim Dae Jung announced during the election campaign that he intended to make him prime minister.

After a meeting Friday with the president, opposition leaders agreed to vote on his choice Monday. But the attempt deteriorated into a near brawl on the National Assembly floor after members of Kim’s National Congress for New Politics, or NCNP, discovered that opposition candidates were casting blank ballots to spoil the tally.

“We agreed on a closed ballot. Why are you casting blank ballots?” NCNP lawmakers shouted. Opposition leaders insisted that since it was a secret vote, the NCNP had no business opening ballots to examine their validity.

The dispute escalated with lawmakers from the NCNP and Kim Jong Pil’s United Liberal Democrats blocking opposition colleagues from reaching ballot boxes. The speaker called for decorum, reminding all that the proceedings were being broadcast live.

Amid shoving and screaming, the session was adjourned for further negotiations between the parties; no resolution had been reached as of late Monday.

According to local media polls, a large majority of the public is siding with the president, and one group of citizens listening to the National Assembly proceedings by radio reacted angrily.

“They are responsible for this terrible economic crisis. How brazen-faced they are to try to undermine the new administration,” said Park Young Shik, a businessman. “They oppose because JP [Kim Jong Pil] is an old-timer? That’s a laugh. Are they new faces, then?”

Park suggested that the opposition fears that a smooth-functioning Kim Dae Jung government might make good on its promise to require sweeping restructuring of the nation’s powerful chaebol, or conglomerates, as part of the huge reforms demanded by the International Monetary Fund as a condition of its $60-billion bailout of South Korea last November.

But opposition lawmakers noted that the president himself resorted to obstructionist tactics when he was in the opposition. And they signaled that the battle may continue for at least long enough to damage the president’s reputation in South Korea, if not internationally.

“If President Kim Dae Jung appoints Kim Jong Pil as acting prime minister, that would be unconstitutional,” warned GNP lawmaker Kim Chan Jin.

But NCNP spokesman Yu Jay Gon said that Korean law does not specify how long an acting prime minister can serve. “Some say it’s no problem, and others say it’s illegal,” he noted. “If that kind of argument drags on, it will be burdensome for both sides.”

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