The slow and difficult formation of a workers' party based on the trade unions seems to be the only way of overcoming this confused situation. * President-elect Kim Dae-jung, during a television debate with rival candidates Lee Hoi-chang and Rhee In-je fence during the biggest General Strike in The split in the ruling camp Korean history, fearing that any support he might show for the workers would irretrievable damage his presidential chances.
And he made it clear before the presidential vote that he would support the release of Rho Tae-woo and Chun Doohwan, the politicians responsible for the Kwanju massacre, in the name of national reconciliation. He did this to secure the hard core vote from the Kyongsang region, even though it appeared not to make the slightest difference in the election outcome.
To his credit, Kim Young-sam refused to consider Lee Hoi-chang's proposal of a release for the two mass murderers before the election was held on the grounds this would be seen as a cynical vote-catching ploy on behalf of the ruling camp.
A small test of Kim Dae-jung's freedom for independent political action would be the pardoning of left wing political prisoners, following on the release of Chun and Rho in the name of "national reconciliation"
This issue was raised by Kim Daejung during the election, during television interview in Kwangju. At the time Kim stated that he would pardon "prisoners of conscience who, being nonCommunists, were arrested because of
President Kim Young-sam became a liability to the ruling camp sometime between the January 1997 General Strike and November's IMF bailout,
Kim had tried to rule in the manner of an incorruptible Confucian sage from the Chosun Dynasty. But a whole series of money scandals and the mounting tide of corporate bankruptcies robbed him of any claims either of breaking with the bad past of political corruption or of creating a bright future of global competitiveness. The conviction and imprisonment of his second son, Kim Youngchul, on bribery charges following the bankruptcy of the Hanbo business group summed up Kim's limitations in
The fate of Hanbo was also a distant early warning of the much wider problems that the chaebols were soon to encounter. When Hanbo failed in January 1997, it owed debts 16 times higher than its net capital worth. Through a typically over-optimistic assessment of markets and growth potential and the persuasive power of the President's son in the halls of lending institutions, Hanbo expected to enter the economic big league virtually overnight.
When it crashed, its reverberations were felt across the entire economy. It soon became apparent that such practices were not confined to Hanbo, and the banks began to grow nervous about the ability of businesses to pay back their huge short term loans. The collapse of Kia, the eighth largest chaebols in August, was proof that the entire economy had entered into protracted crisis. The "unholy alliance"
Kim Young-sam's New Korea Party was the result of an earlier unholy alliance in 1990 which brought together his Pusan-based organisation with that of the South-Easterner forces of Rho Taewoo and Chun Doo-hwan. Formerly know as the Democratic Liberal Party, it was renamed the New Korea Party in late 1995, after Chun and Rho had been arrested. The renaming of the organisation was part of the attempt to remake Korean politics known as "settling accounts with history" which led to the 1995 trials of Chun and Rho on charges of mutiny and massacre.
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* South Korea
There was a large element of opportunism involved in these trials since it was the means by which Kim Youngsam informed the South-Easterner forces that the balance of power had decisively shifted against them. It was also an intimidation tactic, threatening anyone who might wish to reveal the details of Rho's financing of Kim Young sam's successful presidential campaign in 1992. At the same time, it ought to be seen retrospectively as a genuine limited attempt to rewrite the bourgeois rules of the game in order to rule out the violent overthrow of the constitutional order by the Army.
The verdict on Kwangju, on the other hand, was muffled; the bourgeoisie indicating that the violent suppression of pro-democracy movements is not ruled out in the future. Factionalism continued
The shift in the balance of power inside the New Korea Party did not mean that the two basic tactions had disappeared. On the contrary, they were alive and well and battling over who to nominate as their presidential candidate. In the end, this became a two-man race between the South-Eastern backed Lee Hoi-chang, a millionaire supreme court judge from the Chun Doo-hwan era, and Rhee In-je, the former governor of Kyonggi province, the favorite of Kim Young-sam's faction. After initially giving Lee support by nominating him as party chair a year before the election, Kim chose to stay neutral during the actual nomination contest.
The election of the presidential candidate by a vote of the membership was a first for the ruling camp. Lee was duly nominated, but the result was acrimonious. The division in the party opened to a chasm when it was revealed that Lee's two sons had evaded compulsory military service by being declared underweight. Overnight, Lee's popularity dropped like a stone; and the NKP appeared to be heading for certain defeat. It was at this point that Rhee decided to break with the NKP and run against Lee, despite having pledged to honour the outcome of the vote.
At more or less the same time, the prosecution initiated and then just as suddenly dropped charges gainst Kim Dae-jung over the existence of a secret political slush fund. Lee decided that Kim Young-sam was personally responsible, and he called on Kim to leave the New Korea Party! Kim did so, and Lee then renamed his South-Easterner aliance the Grand National Party. From this point on, Lee's campaign began to regain momentum. However, his new found popularity was not enough to overcome the early lead Kim Dae-jung had already secured. In the end, Lee managed to obtain more or less the same percentage from the same segment of hard-line voters as Rho Tae-woo in 1987; the presence of Rhee In-je probably benefited Kim, especially in the second largest constituency, Kyonggi province. No nostalgia for autoritarian past
Contrary to some world media reports, there is no popular nostalgia for autoritarianism in Korea. There has been a sustained but small campaign waged by some in the ruling camp on behalf of President Park, and weekly attendance at his graveside by old folks has risen a little bit. This is not cause for alarm. Indeed, this nostalgia seems primarily to be taking the form of people attempting to sell fairly unpopular Park memorabilia to make some money.
There is no nostalgia at all for the rule of Rho Tae-woo and Chun Doo-hwan, who are seen as vicious, unimaginative and stupid. Most adults and some university students can still remember the just struggle against the autoritarian regime. Even Lee Hoi-chang emphasised his democratic credentials in holding up the rule of law against arbitrary military government during the election campaign. And one battalion commander now faces a heavy prison sentence for interfering in politics, after issuing a statement denuncing Lee for his sons' evasion of military service. *