South Koreans elect a new president
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Kim Dae-jung, a veteran opposition
leader once persecuted by military dictators, won South Korea's
presidency Friday and the daunting job of restoring its economy,
according to an unofficial count by state-owned television.
The victory by Kim, 73, marked the first time an opposition candidate
has prevailed over the cliques that have ruled South Korea since its
founding in 1948.
State-owned KBS-TV said its unofficial count of 89 percent of the
ballots from today's election gave Kim 40.3 percent to 38.6 percent for
Lee Hoi-chang, the ruling party candidate.
The other two major networks reported similar figures, and the state
election committee also had Kim winning, although its count was far
behind.
For Kim Dae-jung, it was a sweet victory in his fourth run for the
nation's highest office in a maverick political career spanning four
decades.
He spent 7 1/2 of those years in jail or under house arrest and another
four in exile, the victim of military dictators in the 1970s and 1980s who
saw his populist ideas as a threat.
Rhee In-je, a former provincial governor who split away from the ruling
party after he lost its nomination to Lee, was in third place with 19.4
percent, KBS-TV reported.
Voters were seeking economic salvation from the candidates, but no
contender offered any concrete, detailed plans for reviving South
Korea's shattered economy.
Turnout was heavy in a young nation that takes its democracy seriously
and turns its presidential elections into national holidays.
Analysts had predicted one of the closest races in South Korea's
history in what boiled down to a two-way contest between Lee and
Kim.
Polls closed at 6 p.m., 12 hours after they opened, but the winner was
not expected to be known until Friday morning, possibly later.
About 20 percent of the eligible voters, or about 6 million people, told
pollsters only a day ago that they still had not made up their minds.
''I don't like any of the candidates, but I will vote for a candidate who
can save the economy,'' Kim Young-hee, a 48-year-old housewife, said
before entering a polling station in Bundang, a Seoul suburb.
Several people waiting in line for their turn to vote nodded their
agreement.
In the past month, South Korea's 44 million residents watched in dismay
and shock as their nation tumbled from its rank as the world's
11th-largest economic giant to the humbled recipient of the largest
economic bailout ever by the International Monetary Fund.
Restoring the economy will be the new president's chief job -- a task all
of the candidates acknowledged while offering few details on how
they'd do it.
But the winner's course of action has already largely been set by the
IMF. In return for its $57 billion loan, South Korea agreed this month to
slow economic growth and hike taxes and interest rates -- measures
that could cost up to 1 million jobs.
The effect already is being felt. Hundreds of companies, small and big,
have fallen. Unemployment is rising. Prices are soaring. Christmas
carols that used to ring throughout downtown Seoul at this time of year
were all but missing.
''People are worried and confused. They always talk about the
economy and what's going to happen in the future,'' said Yang
Hae-yoo, a 23-year-old college student.
For the first time in four decades, economic woes overshadowed the
threat from communist North Korea -- a concern that dominated all
previous elections.
Lee, 62, leaned heavily on his reputation for incorruptibility to win the
nomination of the ruling party, which was trying to burnish its image
after a series of corruption scandals.
But his campaign was damaged by allegations that his two sons avoided
South Korea's mandatory military service while Lee served as the
nation's youngest Supreme Court justice in the early 1990s.
At 49, Rhee is the youngest major candidate, and he appealed to a
number of mostly youthful voters.
Four other candidates barely registered on opinion surveys.
Election officials said 80.6 percent of the 33 million eligible voters went
to the polls, higher than the 75 percent analysts had predicted and only
slightly lower than the 81.9 percent who turned out for the 1992
presidential election.
President Kim Young-sam, whose five-year term ends in February, is
barred by law from re-election.
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