Kim a Well-Connected Player

In diplomacy and politics, connections matter. Kim Un Yong, a powerful and influential South Korean, has spent a lifetime making connections.

Some say he learned how things work when he was a spy for his country’s infamous CIA. He says no, not true, he never was a spy. But by all accounts he is shrewd. And savvy. And he has long been giving of his time and generous with money, apparently living a credo he repeats often: “All in life is human relations.”

In the International Olympic Committee, where relationships matter above all, Kim has emerged as a leading candidate to succeed Juan Antonio Samaranch as president.

Most of the world never has heard of Kim. Yet, on July 16, at a landmark IOC election in Moscow, he could well become the most powerful man in international sports.

Without doubt, Kim is the most intriguing candidate. If he wins, his victory will mark a profound shift in IOC history. If he does not prevail, it is widely believed that he directs enough votes to decide who will be the next president.

Four others are in the race: American Anita DeFrantz, Belgian Jacques Rogge, Canadian Dick Pound and Hungarian Pal Schmitt.

Rogge, Pound and Kim are the strongest candidates, according to Olympic insiders.

And Kim is, perhaps, the ultimate IOC insider, for years a loyal and trusted ally of Samaranch. Both are experts at playing creative angles. Friday, only 10 days before the election, the Korean Olympic Committee announced it would be setting up a “Samaranch Room” at its recently inaugurated museum in Seoul.

The move is classic Kim, a delicately calculated response to Samaranch, who insists he is neutral in the election but has nonetheless subtly signaled that Kim would not be his choice.

A few weeks ago, Samaranch called off a trip to Seoul. Although he was not feeling well, the cancellation was widely seen as a snub. Samaranch also notes often that four of the five candidates are former Olympic athletes, the exception being Kim. And Samaranch has repeatedly said he opposes Kim’s controversial call to reinstate IOC member visits to cities bidding to play host to the Games.

Kim represents the ambitions of the many members in the developing world--particularly from Asia and Africa--who have joined the IOC in increasing numbers during Samaranch’s reign. Kim would be the IOC’s first president from Asia.

For many years, Kim has seen to it that money and sports equipment flow from Seoul to Africa, Latin America and other parts of Asia. He says there’s no quid pro quo involved or expected. Rather, he insists, it’s a matter of Korean goodwill and reflects the best of Olympic values--helping others in need.

In February, for instance, Kim announced he was personally donating $200,000--he has made a fortune over the years in real estate and other investments--to Olympic Solidarity, which directs sports aid to developing nations. He had previously given Solidarity $133,000, besides computers and fax machines.

“If the IOC loses Olympic ideals, we are nothing more than a small-event organizer,” he said.

Many IOC members in the Third World acknowledge Kim’s influence, and some keenly feel a sense of payback.

Sport Intern, a German newsletter devoted to the Olympics, reported in February that Sheik Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, the IOC member in Kuwait and head of the Olympic Council of Asia, is reputed to have said, “If Kim Un Yong runs as a candidate, I will vote for Dr. Kim. If Dr. Kim does not run, I will ask him who I should vote for.”

Samaranch is the IOC’s seventh president. All have been white men. Six were from western Europe. One, Avery Brundage, was American.

“Today’s world is not for half of one ring, one continent,” Kim says, a reference to Europe and to the five Olympic rings, which symbolize Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas and Oceania. “It’s five rings, five continents.”

Kim is well positioned. He is the only one of the five candidates who can say he has:

* Helped to organize an Olympic Games (Seoul, 1988).

* Served as president of his country’s Olympic committee.

* Headed an international sports federation (taekwondo).

* Led a worldwide association of such sports federations (it goes by the acronym GAISF).

* Served on the IOC’s ruling Executive Board.

At last September’s Sydney Olympics, Kim played an instrumental role in arranging the joint march by North and South Korea in the opening ceremony.

He has been an officer in his nation’s army and a diplomat in sensitive posts, one of them Washington. He is a member of South Korea’s parliament. He is a trusted advisor to South Korea’s president, Kim Dae Jung--so close that, at the historic summit last year between North and South Korea, he was in several photos taken at the end of the meeting, standing directly behind North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Il.

Just last month, Kim made another in a series of visits to Washington, where he met with various senators and congressmen. In January, he attended President Bush’s inauguration. The next month he attended a state dinner for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Kim’s ties to the U.S. run deep. In quiet moments, he happily tells tales of being a young soldier training at Fort Benning, Ga.; of going to college in El Paso; of buying the first of many Alka-Seltzers to come at a drug store on 25th Street in Denver.

He was baptized in El Paso. A pianist, he once performed Chopin’s “Fantasy Impromptu” for an El Paso TV station (he still can perform it from memory). Nearly 40 years ago, he was made an honorary citizen of Columbus, Ga.--and still has the proclamation.

Kim’s files are the stuff of legend and myth. No one else really knows what dossiers he does or doesn’t have--and no one has ever publicly confirmed the full scope and nature of his role in the various government and business enterprises he has been associated with over the years.

His name turns up in U.S. congressional reports, once as the point man in a request that Colt Industries, supplier of arms to the South Korean military, contribute to the 1971 South Korean presidential election. The election, according to a congressional report, would be marked by “widespread voting irregularities.” On the advice of its lawyers, the firm declined.

Kim makes no secret of his government service, or of his connections over the years to South Korea’s elite, and notes that diplomatic service often means gathering, collating and synthesizing information--the same stuff spies frequently do.

He said, “I’m not a spy,” adding, “But even if I was, George Bush used to be a spy. Look what happened to him,” a reference to the former head of the CIA and 41st U.S. president. “So what’s so wrong about being a spy?”

John Hoberman, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin and an expert on Olympic history and politics, observed:

“The problem with Kim is going to be penetrating the secret career of a political operative who surfaces several times in House of Representatives documents but, to the best of my knowledge, has just not left political footprints elsewhere.

“What you really want is his CIA file. Which probably is not going to be forthcoming, especially if he wins [the IOC presidency].”

To win, he has to finesse an issue the other candidates don’t--involvement in the Salt Lake scandal.

His only son, John, was indicted in connection with the scandal but moved to Seoul before facing U.S. charges. The father received a “most serious” warning from the IOC for nepotism and, several sources said, came much closer to being expelled than has ever been publicly reported--saved after intervention by other key Samaranch allies.

“It never entered our minds we were saving him for the presidency,” one member says now.

The Kims have repeatedly denied wrongdoing.

It is a measure of how formidable a challenger Kim has become that some influential members in Europe have spent the last few weeks asking colleagues to imagine Kim--with his “most serious” warning--standing atop a podium next February as head of the IOC opening the Salt Lake Winter Games.

Some have suggested that Kim’s connection to the scandal should compel members to think twice about his candidacy.

John MacAloon, a University of Chicago professor and Olympic expert who served on the IOC commission that drew up the 1999 reforms, said, “I would think there are a lot of members who are happy at this point to tell Mr. Kim what he wants to hear and get the favors he’s offering but when they [vote], one would hope they would think better of things.”

Others, mindful of an anti-American sentiment within the IOC that the scandal exacerbated, wonder if Kim won’t be the beneficiary of such sentiment--as a way of asserting IOC independence. Many members have viewed the aggressive U.S. reaction to the scandal, which includes a number of criminal court cases, as unwelcome moralizing.

Issued in April, the rules of the IOC election have since forbidden members from talking in public about the candidates. Speaking on condition of anonymity, however, members who favor one of the other candidates also note repeatedly that Kim is mentioned by name in the indictment handed up against Tom Welch and Dave Johnson, who led the Salt Lake bid and go to trial July 30 on federal fraud charges.

In listing $1 million in “direct and indirect payments of money and personal benefits” that it says the Salt Lake bid team showered on IOC members, the indictment says about $78,000 in “payments and personal benefits” went to Kim. It provides no break-out of that sum.

Kim says he did nothing wrong. The proof, he said, is that the U.S. Justice Department--which unlike the IOC has ample investigatory resources and subpoena power--did not move against him, even as prosecutors filed charges against his son.

“All my life I’ve never done anything against my conscience,” Kim said. “Helping others, being a benefit giver--that’s my lifestyle.”

He said his priority, if elected, would be the Salt Lake Games: “The first thing is the success of the Salt Lake Games. Everything depends on that.”

He also has signaled his intent to take a fresh look at the 50-point reform package that the IOC enacted in the wake of the 1999 scandal.

Perhaps the most important of the reforms was the ban on visits to cities bidding for the right to host the Games--the best perk of being an IOC member but also the very thing that led directly to the scandal in Salt Lake.

A key plank in Kim’s campaign is reinstating the visits, although at IOC expense. He has said many times that the ban on visits has “humiliated” IOC members by treating them as potential criminals and has urged a restoration of their “dignity.”

His “Olympic Action Plan” also declares that IOC members “must be granted the rank and consideration they deserve,” and calls for the IOC to provide “proper support of office and expenses” to the members.

“Many national Olympic committees do not have office buildings,” he said. He paused, then said, “Forget that. They don’t have shoes for their youngsters. All these things must be harmonized.”

“Harmonized” is IOC code-speak that means “let’s divide up the financial pie differently than it’s divvied up now.” In this context, it means more money for the national Olympic committees and probably more still to the international sports federations. Kim, after all, is president of one such federation and heads their umbrella association, GAISF.

To many IOC members, this is powerful stuff. The issue to be resolved July 16 in Moscow is, how many members? Enough to win?

“He shows leadership,” one member said of Kim. “He says things people want said.”

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Kim Facts

* Country: South Korea.

* Age: 70.

* IOC member: Since 1986.

* Career: Secretary to the prime minister; United Nations general assembly delegate (1965); special envoy of the president of the Republic of Korea (1990).

* Sports career: Only candidate who did not compete in the Olympics. Competed in taekwondo, judo and track and field at national level.

* IOC highlights: IOC vice president (1992-96); member of executive board (1988-92; 1997-present).

The IOC Presidents

The seven who have held the International Olympic Committee’s highest position:

Juan Antonio Samaranch

1980-2001, Spain

Fact: Through his efforts the Olympic Museum was built in Lausanne in 1993.

*

Lord Killanin

1972-80, Ireland

Fact: Former newspaper war correspondent; Died in April 1999.

*

Avery Brundage

1952-72, United States

Fact: Represented the U.S. in the 1912 Stockholm Games; Died in May 1975.

*

Sigfrid Edstrsm

1946-52, Sweden

Fact: Founder of the International Amateur Athletics Federation and first president (1913-46).

*

Henri de Baillet-Latour

1925-42, Belgium

Fact: Helped Belgium obtain Summer Games with little preparation, shortly after World War I.

*

Pierre de Coubertin

1896-1925, France

Fact: Responsible for the opening and closing ceremonies.

*

Demetrius Vikelas

1894-96, Greece

Fact: His efforts led Greece to host first Olympic Games in 1896.

IOC PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

* What: The eighth IOC president will be elected by IOC members on July 16.

* Where: 112th IOC session in Moscow.

* Term of office: The president will be elected for eight years.

* The candidates: Anita DeFrantz, Kim Un Yong, Dick Pound, Jacques Rogge, Pal Schmitt.

*

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