Elections Give Opposition Control of South Korea Assembly

South Korea’s conservative opposition party won control of the National Assembly on Thursday in elections that are expected to paralyze President Kim Dae Jung in his last months in office and undermine the chances of the candidate he favors in the upcoming presidential vote.

In an effort to salvage his flagging presidency, Kim appointed Chang Dae Hwan, the U.S.-educated publisher of South Korea’s largest economic daily, to the largely ceremonial post of prime minister. His previous nominee, Chang Sang, who would have been the country’s first female prime minister, was rejected after the assembly raised questions about misleading claims on her resume and about her business dealings.

The elections for 13 vacant assembly seats were a minor event on the busy political calendar in South Korea this year and attracted scant voter interest, but the results could weigh heavily on the country. By winning 11 of the 13 races, the opposition Grand National Party now controls 139 out of 273 seats in the assembly.

“This is the first time the opposition has controlled a stable majority of the parliament. They can do what they want. They can even impeach the new president,” said political scientist Hahm Sung Deuk of Korea University. “This will be in effect a co-presidency.”

The election results were widely seen as a slap in the face to Kim. The 77-year-old president, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his diplomacy with North Korea, has been tarnished by political corruption scandals involving his family and by the disappointing results of his negotiations with the North.

The results could also trigger a revolt in the ruling Millennium Democratic Party, which Kim founded. Some party members believe that presidential candidate Roh Mu Hyun is not strong enough to carry the party out of its slump and should be replaced before the Dec. 19 presidential election.

There also has been talk about the creation of a new party.

One possible candidate, either in the ruling party or a new one, is Chung Mong Jun, an independent lawmaker who heads the Korean soccer association and whose popularity has soared.

Polls released Thursday night for the first time showed Chung emerging as the front-runner in a three-way race with Roh and opposition leader Lee Hoi Chang. The poll by South Korea’s SBS television also showed Chung beating Lee by a narrow margin in a two-way race. Chung’s father founded the Hyundai conglomerate.

But political pundits cautioned that the South Korean electorate has a tendency to become quickly infatuated with fresh, new faces and then sour on them with equal alacrity. Indeed, ruling party candidate Roh, a human rights lawyer with a reputation for integrity, took the political scene by storm earlier this year when he emerged from relative obscurity to win primary elections for the presidency.

In a meeting this morning with party members, Roh said he would agree to a new convention to choose a presidential candidate or even to the creation of a new party if his colleagues decided to do so.

Turnout in Thursday’s elections was among the lowest, with only 29.6% of eligible voters going to the polls. The low turnout was blamed on the summer vacation season, torrential rains that made it impossible for some to reach polling places--and disenchantment with the political process.

Nam Kyung Pil, a spokesman for the Grand National Party, said, “The current administration resorted to political maneuvering to hide its mismanagement. But the wise people were not deceived.”

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