SOUTH KOREA: PRESIDENT KIM DAE-JUNG APPOINTS CHANG DAE-WHAN AS COUNTRY'S NEW ACTING PRIME MINISTER AFTER RULING PARTY'S MAJOR BY-ELECTION DEFEAT

Record ID: 640515

  • Title: SOUTH KOREA: PRESIDENT KIM DAE-JUNG APPOINTS CHANG DAE-WHAN AS COUNTRY'S NEW ACTING PRIME MINISTER AFTER RULING PARTY'S MAJOR BY-ELECTION DEFEAT
  • Date: 8th August 2002
  • Summary: (U3) SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (AUGUST 8, 2002) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF OF VOTING (2 SHOTS) VARIOUS OF COUNTING (3 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 23rd August 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
  • Country: South Korea
  • Topics: General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAAU0CH6QP7MPN56UBTPD3ZMOJK
  • Story Text: South Korean President Kim Dae-jung appointed new acting Prime Mininster after the ruling party's major defeat at the by-election only six months ahead of the Presidential election.
    President Kim Dae-jung named the head of South Korea's largest business newspaper as prime minister on Friday (August 9), the day after the opposition took control of Parliament in a by-election landslide.
    Kim tapped Chang Dae-whan, 50-year-old president of the Maeil Business Newspaper, following parliament's rejection last week of his previous nominee for the post, a theologian who would have been the country's first female premier.
    The prime minister plays a largely ceremonial role, but would take over if the president died or was incapacitated.
    On Thursday (August 8), voters delivered a rebuke to Kim's minority government, giving the opposition a triumph in by-elections seen as a litmus test for the December presidential race.
    Capitalising on anger over scandals surrounding Kim's government and family, the centre-right Grand National Party swept 11 of the 13 seats on offer.
    With 139 seats, the GNP -- already the largest bloc in the 273-member National Assembly -- now has a clear majority.
    The ruling Millennium Democratic Party managed to win only two, both in its traditional southwestern base in Cholla province. President Kim founded the MDP, but left it in April as investigators closed in on influence-peddling scandals implicating two of his three sons.
    "We've experienced a series of scandals and corruptions which seem to be never ending and its still going on. And people are quite fed up with all that. And I think the recent defeat of the ruling party and the government for that matter in the by-election is a manifest example of the people's mood which is very negative towards the government and the ruling party for those matters," said Professor Lee Chung-hoon at Yonsei University.
    The GNP had criticised the government as soft on communist North Korea and called on voters to "pass judgment" on Kim over scandals involving his sons and aides. This was the formula it used for a similar landslide victory in June local elections.
    Kim, 77, cannot run in the December election because the constitution limits the president to a single five-year term.
    The former dissident recently got a rare piece of good news in the revival of inter-Korean rapprochement, the cause for which he won the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize. After months of stalemate, North and South are to hold ministerial talks from August 12 to 14.
    But Kim's support at home has been hurt by the scandals.
    Few South Koreans have forgotten that he led the attack when the son of his disgraced predecessor, Kim Young-sam, was jailed for graft in 1997.
    According to his official resume, the new premier-designate has a doctorate in management from New York University. Since 1988 he has been president and publisher of the Maeil Business Newspaper, which was founded by his father-in-law.
    The post had been empty since July 11, a vacancy prolonged by the GNP-led parliamentary veto of Chang Sang, a 62-year-old female theologian, over ethical concerns. Chang Dae-whan, no relation, must also win parliamentary approval.
    The professor urged the legislators to pass the new Chang for the politics' sake.
    "If the candidate is qualified, then he or she should be selected swiftly so that national governers can get back on its feet," said Professor Lee.
    In the wake of Thursday's vote, a faction of the MDP was expected to step up moves to form a breakaway party to back a third alternative to the two main parties in December.
    An MDP revolt would undercut the party's presidential candidate, Roh Moo-hyun, who is already trailing the GNP standard-bearer, Lee Hoi-chang in public opinion polls.
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