Kim Dae Jung Sees War on Dictatorship : He Formally Enters South Korea Race, Admits Split Is Possible

SEOUL, South Korea — Opposition leader Kim Dae Jung officially--and finally--announced Wednesday that he is running for the presidency, and he disparaged the ruling party’s candidate with the remark that “only those who have a clear personal history of democratic struggle are qualified.”

Describing the December election as “a great war in which democratic forces have declared the final decisive battle against military dictatorship,” the 63-year-old opposition politician told reporters, “We will surely win.”

Kim, who at least five times in the past 2 1/2 weeks has said unofficially that he is in the race, acknowledged that with longtime opposition rival Kim Young Sam also running, his own candidacy could split the opposition vote against ruling party candidate Roh Tae Woo.

Kim Dae Jung said he still believes that a single opposition candidacy can be worked out later in the campaign, but he insisted that this is not his primary concern at present.

“Transcending the problem of a unified candidacy at the political party level,” he said, “I have now become the single candidate of the democratic forces.”

Fervor and Popularity

Kim cited the partisan fervor for his campaign that was shown Sunday at a Seoul university rally as proof of his popularity.

Wednesday, when a crew from the government-controlled MBC television arrived at the press conference, Kim aides told them to leave the room, accusing MBC of “maliciously manipulating” film made at the Sunday rally so as to indicate that the crowd favored Kim Young Sam, who was also present.

The TV crew left, and five minutes later most of the Seoul newspaper reporters present walked out in a gesture of solidarity. Only when the MBC crew was invited to return did the press conference begin.

Later Wednesday, Kim Dae Jung’s aides announced plans for forming a new opposition political party as the vehicle for his campaign. The framework is already in place. Two pro-Kim organizations, put together by his supporters over the past few years, have been welded into a single network that will become the new party, tentatively named the Peace Democratic Party.

Kim Young Sam will run as the nominee of the Reunification Democratic Party, a fragile alliance organized by the two Kims last spring. Kim Young Sam has scheduled a nominating convention for next week.

Struggle for Support

The two opposition leaders have already begun a struggle for the support of uncommitted opposition politicians from the fractured Reunification Democratic Party and lesser groupings in the National Assembly.

Kim Dae Jung made no mention Wednesday of his opposition rival, Kim Young Sam. He trained his fire on Roh, a former general who is the handpicked candidate of President Chun Doo Hwan.

“The great majority of people, particularly all democratic forces, consider Roh Tae Woo and Chun Doo Hwan as absolutely no different from each other as military dictators,” Kim said. “ . . . It is beyond a shadow of doubt that Roh Tae Woo is scheming to achieve an unjust victory through a fraudulent election.

“At the same time, how can they who have imposed nothing but suffering on workers and farmers guarantee the livelihood rights of these same workers and farmers? And how can the culprits of the Kwangju incident open the way to reconciliation?”

The “Kwangju incident” is the emotional battle standard of the politics of Kim Dae Jung. In May of 1980, the day after the government, in effect run by Gen. Chun Doo Hwan, declared martial law and had Kim arrested, violent demonstrations broke out in the city of Kwangju, the capital of Kim’s native Chollanam province. Nine days later, at least 194 Kwangju citizens, most of them students, were dead, killed by soldiers sent in to quell the protests that eventually exploded into armed insurrection.

A ‘Victim’ of Kwangju

“I believe, because I am also a victim of the Kwangju incident, that I am the person who can best solve it,” Kim said.

Almost from the day he was arrested in 1980, Kim was in prison, under house arrest or in exile abroad until early last July, when his political rights were restored by President Chun, an act, some political analysts say, designed in part to set the two Kims in competition for the opposition nomination and thereby improve Roh’s electoral chances.

Kim Dae Jung’s declaration of his candidacy underscored the competition.

“I doubt whether his secession from the (Reunification Democratic) party meets the popular aspirations,” Kim Young Sam said.

Kim Tae Ryong, party spokesman for the Reunification Democrats, was seething when he met later with the press. He said Kim Dae Jung’s leaving the party was “a betrayal of the people and will be subject to an assumption that he dances to the purposeful tune of the current regime.”

In a nationwide referendum Tuesday, South Korean voters overwhelmingly approved a series of constitutional revisions that set up the country’s first direct presidential election in 16 years. The election is to take place sometime before Dec. 20. A date is expected to be announced next week.