South Korea's New Activists

...There is no connection between the government and [our] people...

...A businessman told me the latest story getting guffaws at luncheon talks and conferences: "There was a great deal of concern when an Assemblyman and a bandit fell into the polluted Han River running through Seoul and drowned...

...She praised DJ as "very balanced," but refused to endorse him...

...But they recognize the need to rouse the grass roots...

...Earlier that month, on the eve of the long New Year's weekend here, I encountered several young women and men in the plaza in front of Seoul Station who held aloft a banner urging the crowds rushing to board trains to sign a petition calling for the ouster of politicians deemed corrupt, incompetent or both...

...Elsewhere, most Assemblymen hold "safe" seats...

...Many observers believe DJ's political future rides on the outcome of a number of uncertain contests in the Seoul metropolitan region, home of 40 per cent of South Korea's population...

...A second bill adopted by the Assembly in February seeks to expand the role of women in politics by guaranteeing them 30 per cent of the seats chosen by the proportional system...

...Meanwhile, things have not been going well for President Kim Dae Jung either...

...One positive sign is that the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), an umbrella organization representing over half a million workers, mostly in heavy industries, is organizing its own party to challenge entrenched interests at the polls...

...Should the opposition gain strength in the Assembly, DJ would become a lame duck for the remaining 34 months of his term...

...People come up to me and say we are doing something revolutionary without bloodshed," said Kim...

...The pervasive spy organization tortured and harassed thousands of dissidents, including Kim Dae Jung, or "DJ," during his years as Korea's best known opposition leader...

...Unlike activism in America, however, the endeavor in Korea is viewed as the most important political movement here in more than a decade...

...Now that he is President, DJ regularly inveighs against regionalism, but the message is largely ignored...

...DJ appeared to have been the beneficiary when disaffected members of the opposition GNP decided to form yet another party...

...Reducing the size of the Assembly forced the President's party and the opposition to jettison several of their Assembly members who wanted to run again, including some who were on the blacklist...

...Nor does any political leader, for that matter, count on regional backing more than Kim Dae Jung, the hero of the Cholla region in the Southwest...

...Political reform is dedicated to getting rid of regional influence," said Marion Kim, editor of Civil Society, an organ of the Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice...

...So negative is the campaign that Kim Jong Pil, in an interview with a Korean journalist, actually advised him to read up on the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong for insights into what he intimated DJ was trying to do to him...

...For most, the name that provokes controversy is that of Kim Jong Pil, at 75 a legendary figure in modern Korean history...

...Criticism of the effort has come not only from the fingered politicians themselves but also their supporters...

...Korean politics over the years has been full of surprises—none, indeed, more shocking than Kim Dae Jung's rise from political prisoner to president...

...Cholla voters feel they were victimized under Park Chung Hee and the generals who came after him—all of whom were from the south-central region around Taegu, another major city...

...While the Alliance denies any relationship with the KCTU, both owe their existence to the sense that in its present forni the National Assembly only represents the interests of politicians and parties elected not on their principles but on the strength of autocratic leaders backed by powerful donors...

...Several hundred thousand have left the region for metropolitan Seoul over the past 50 years in search of jobs and education...

...No basic change is being pursued in our society...

...But as the subzero temperatures sent many holiday travelers scurrying across the plaza, she conceded that less encouraging comments could also be heard...

...Cholla citizens charge that Park abused them by tightening police controls while showering the Taegu region with economic benefits—a prelude to the Kwangju revolt...

...The President, for his part, hopes the Civic Alliance undertaking will help his newly renamed Millennium Democratic Party regain control of the Assembly— and bolster him generally...

...He faces some of his most severe opposition in Taegu as well as the southeastern city of Pusan, Korea's largest port and Kim Young Sam's hometown...

...In the kind of reversal that has characterized Korean politics, DJ wooed JP and his United Liberal Democrats (ULD) during the 1997 presidential election campaign, then appointed him Prime Minister...

...He suffered a serious blow February 25 when his coalition in the Assembly crumbled...

...The civic action movement will have been a success if it can discourage some of the more flagrant abuses, payoffs and conflicts of interest that have tarnished National Assembly members...

...They argue that the economy has "recovered" from its near collapse in 1997, and that the then critical downsizing and restructuring may now be halted...

...We plan to stretch our organization's powers, sending people to villages, factories and farms to announce our goals...

...Fighting Political Corruption South Korea's New Activists By Donald Kirk Seoul In the weeks before South Korea's April 13 National Assembly elections, corruption among the legislature's members has become the butt of black humor...

...The record shows that the closest chaebol connections are with Lee Hoi Chang's GNP, but they have hedged their bets with donations to DJ...

...Donald Kirk, who has long been writing on Asian affairs for the NL, is the author, among other books, of Korean Crisis, just published by St...

...The political reality has given the people disappointment and anger," he has said...

...Even THOSE who do not take the civic action movement itself seriously admit it has hit upon issues that resonate throughout the electorate...

...But the guidelines reflect a degree of idealism that would be difficult for any democratic system to live up to...

...The Alliance has found its strongest supporters among the educated elite, notably professionals and students...

...We are asking voters not to vote for the corrupt politicians," said Yang Se Jin in the coalition's cramped headquarters in downtown Seoul...

...In January JP resigned to thump for ULD Assembly candidates...

...As the system currently operates, he observes, no one, least of all the average voter, has any idea how candidates are really selected...

...To those who suspect the Alliance really is pro-DJ at heart, however, it proudly points out that it opposes 15 members of his party along with a similar number from JP's much smaller ULD...

...There has been nothing quite like it since the mass demonstrations that brought about the end of dictatorship with a declaration of democracy in June 1987, and, six months later, the first presidential election since Kim Dae Jung challenged Park Chung Hee at the polls in 1971...

...The charge of regionalism will surely loom as a major, if often unspoken, issue in the April elections...

...The Internet, though, remains a weapon of the intelligentsia...

...These would require abandoning the practice of judging potential nominees on the basis of financial contributions, and dropping age and cronyism as considerations...

...Web sites have been proliferating as groups rush to get theirmessage across, coordinate with one another—and denounce those on the blacklist...

...The Internet easily links civic activists together throughout South Korea...

...In reality, its influence is very small," said Lee, who is waging his own campaign for the Assembly...

...An American woman married to a Korean educator, she has spent more than 20 years here working for human rights...

...The law calls for selecting 227 from the country's regions by popular vote, and filling the remaining 46 seats by appointment according to each party's proportion of the returns...

...The consensus on the street is that those tarred by the activists deserve what they get...

...With that in mind, the Alliance has issued "guidelines" for parties to follow in selecting nominees...

...This is our best chance to get hundreds of signatures," explained Kim Myoung Ryoon...

...Thus they are staging rallies, going door-to-door, soliciting the aid of union members, and mobilizing the upwards of a million people left out of real jobs in the country's recovery from its recent economic crisis...

...They unhesitatingly picked the Assemblyman...

...The fair selection of candidates' says Choi Yul, the Alliance chairman, "shouldbe the beginning of the election revolution...

...No candidate can win without donations...

...JP's long history of survival makes his comparison difficult to ignore, but then again DJ has survived just as long...

...While a threat to his credibility in the form of a second economic crisis is difficult to imagine, his party's losing at the polls could result in DJ's suffering the fate of some of his predecessors—who started out strong, only to falter and leave office in disrepute...

...In all four of his presidential campaigns, DJ has been able to muster 95 per cent of the votes from North and South Cholla provinces as well as the regional city of Kwangju...

...The activists were pleased when the Assembly on February 8 passed an election law cutting its size from 299 to 273 members...

...Martin's...

...This should serve as an opportunity to renew politics in Korea and push forward reform to establish a true government of the people...

...As a one-time dissident, his aim is to convince Alliance zealots that he is one of them...

...Both Chun Doo Hwan and Roh Tae Woo were jailed for massive corruption as well as their involvement in the massacre that ended the Kwangju revolt of May 1980...

...The record of Kim Young Sam, who brought them to trial, was besmirched by his son's trial for soliciting bribes from a chaebol to support Kim Young Sam's 1992 campaign...

...The movement appears to be meeting with success...

...Standing outside Seoul Station, Lee Chang Soo, vice president of the splinter Korean Youth Progressive Party, questioned the effectiveness of the Citizens' Alliance movement...

...Of course, important as money is, ultimately Korean politicians rely on regional backing to propel them into office...

...But his coalition fell apart when JP's party said it would no longer stand by the government...

...THE IMMEDIATE goal of the civic action movement is to keep undesirables from running altogether...

...In pursuit of support, the Citizens' Alliance movement has been employing a powerful tool that neither Kim Jong Pil nor Kim Dae Jung could have imagined in their earlier careers as antiestablishmentpoliticians...

...She is the director of the United Korean Women's Association, one of approximately 500 organizations participating in a loosely structured Citizens' Alliance for the Year 2000 General Elections...

...The question is, can voters be aroused to the point where they will mount a rebellion at the polls...

...The divers called to retrieve them were instructed to decide which body posed the bigger environmental threat and drag it out first...

...All were targeting over 100 entrenched politicos, including 67 who occupy seats in the 299person Assembly and more than 40 others regarded as influential backstage figures...

...One man said, 'I'm really angry about your group,' " Kim recalled...

...It is inconceivable, for instance, that Kim Jong Pil will lose significant numbers of votes from his region around Taejon, the major city about 100 miles south of Seoul...

...That's why DJ and his allies have received significant support in Seoul, despite lagging in other major centers...

...We feel so very happy...

...Known locally as "JP," he helped to propel the dictatorial Park Chung Hee to power in a 1961 coup d'état, then founded the Korean Central Intelligence Agency...

...If nothing else, the civic action movement has injected excitement into elections that otherwise might not have generated much interest among average voters...

...He told us he didn't like seeing a particular name on the list...

...Many see that case, and the subsequent demise of the chaebol involved, as the first step toward the 1997 crash...

...One of the most urgent objectives of the activists is to convince voters that the movement does not represent regional interests...

...Nevertheless, critics maintain that people from Cholla comprise the largest single group within the Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice and the Citizens' Alliance...

...In this capital, it is hard to find any professional person who disapproves of the Citizens' Alliance initiative, originally inspired by nongovernmental organizations in the United States...

...In Pusan, I discovered, people claim that DJ deliberately left them behind in the country's economic recovery...

...Others were spreading the word at busy locations elsewhere...

...Confronted by both the civic action movement and government warnings, the heads of Korea's family-owned conglomerates, or chaebol, are sure to spend lavishly, albeit secretly, on compliant candidates...

...Still, he conceded, the "Korean people want change from below—and fundamental reform...

...If party deal makers do not follow the guidelines, Choi said, the Alliance will sue to nullify the nominations...

...People were afraid the rotting bodies would further contaminate the river...

...We consciously and deliberately" have chosen strict neutrality, she said, "just to remind people of the kind of person you have to elect...

...Such declarations about reform have convinced JP's adherents that a Machiavellian plot has been engineered by DJ to destroy their hero as the activist campaign reaches fever pitch in April—traditionally a time of violent demonstrations by students and workers...

...His popularity seems to have declined since reaching a zenith shortly after his inauguration in February 1998, while the civic action cause, he is painfully aware, has turned into a popular nationwide crusade...

...In addition, it has trained its sights on 30 members of Lee Hoi Chang's opposition Grand National Party (GNP...