Rise of a Strongman

By Stephen Smith

A rubber-stamp vote turns a tough general into a President

The South Korean presidential race was not exactly a cliffhanger. Indeed, Chun Doo Hwan, 49, the military strongman, ordered construction to begin on his inaugural stand before the election was even announced. Then last week the National Conference for Unification, the rubber-stamp electoral college, convened in Seoul's Changchung arena to make it official. With only one invalid ballot marring the unanimity of 2,525 delegates, Chun was voted the country's fifth President since it gained statehood in 1948.

An obscure major general before the assassination of President Park Chung Hee last October, Chun rose to prominence and power in December. As head of the Defense Security Command, he abruptly arrested some 40 senior military officers in connection with Park's death; the round-up amounted to an effective coup. The former paratrooper quickly consolidated his power, reducing President Choi Kyu Hah to a figurehead. Choi finally stepped down on Aug. 16, and a week later General Chun duly resigned his commission, in legalistic conformity with the constitution, which bars military men from the presidency. "He was the only guy for the job," a Western diplomat said with a shrug. "When Korea needs stability, the fellow with all the guns simply has to be President."

So rapid was Chun's takeover, and so hazy his background, that Western reporters were summoned to a special briefing just four days before his uncontested election. They learned such basic biographical details as his official birthdate and the preferred spelling of his name. When asked about Chun's possible shortcomings, a military aide paused, then said with a perfectly straight face: "He was molded by the hand of God."

More terrestrially, Chun spent an impoverished childhood as the son of an herbal medicine man. He finished in the top ten in his class at the national Military Academy, took special forces training in the U.S. and commanded a regiment of South Korea's White Horse Division during a year's stint in Viet Nam. Only last May he insisted: "I have no political ambitions." But his behind-the-scenes maneuvering indicated otherwise. "Chun's not the simple-minded soldier, as many abroad might think," a Western diplomat says.

Chun's leadership has proved basically popular in a country long accustomed to authoritarian rule and still reeling from the aftershocks of Park's murder. His puritanical law-and-order approach has included the arrest of some 30,500 alleged gangsters and hooligans and the firing of 8,000 bureaucrats for alleged corruption or inefficiency. At the same time, Chun appeals constantly to Korea's less well-off with populist rhetoric. Says he: "We have to usher in a new era by building a democratic welfare society. Everyone must be satisfied materially as well as spiritually."

Such promises have gone over well because of a major grievance that accompanied the country's breakneck growth in the 1970s: a third of the nation's wealth was allowed to concentrate in the hands of 1% of its families. "The General is calling for a more even distribution of our pie," says Economist Kim Mahn Je, head of the Korea Development Institute, a think tank. "In the interest of solidifying internal stability, the General as President is likely to place a great emphasis on the welfare of Korea's workers."

That goal is apt to be complicated by a severe case of stagflation, which has dropped the growth rate from an average of 9% in the mid-1970s to a record low of minus 5.9% in the second quarter of this year. Chun must also take care not to alienate the business community, which is vital to his political success. Allows Kim: "He has been letting our business men do their business and has not at all been interfering in their affairs."

The unpopular side of Chun's populism has been his unflinching use of repressive measures against opponents. Kim Dae Jung, 54, the vocal opposition leader, is currently being tried for sedition, a charge that the U.S. State Department calls farfetched. Another former rival, Kim Jong Pil, 54, onetime Prime Minister and head of the ruling Democratic Republican Party, is recuperating from 46 days of detention and grilling by the military. Still under house arrest is Kim Young Sam, 52, leader of the opposition New Democratic Party, who has renounced politics altogether. Chun has also imposed rigid military censorship on the press, suspended 172 periodicals for being "socially corrupt" and dismissed some 400 journalists. Last week the U.S. charged that South Korean newspapers were distorting dispatches to give the impression that the Chun government enjoyed unqualified American support.

In fact, the U.S. has publicly deplored Seoul's repressive crack downs, while admitting it has little leverage with the South Korean leadership. Says a State Department official: "We can offer some suggestions about what might be appropriate courses of action, but we can't do much more than that." Given the U.S. security commitment to South Korea, backed up by 39,000 American troops still stationed inside the country, Washington is not about to do anything drastic. Neither is South Korea. Says Seoul National University Professor Hongkoo Lee: "The keys to our survival remain the same: national security and sustained economic growth. And that means consolidation of our relations with the U.S."

Washington took heart last week when South Korea's martial command announced that 85 colleges and universities, closed since the stormy student demonstrations of last May, were free to reopen. Another encouraging development was the appointment of Kim Kyung Won, 44, an internationally known political scientist who earned his doctorate at Harvard, as Chun's chief of staff. These moves raised hopes that Chun might be moving toward a more broadly based civilian government with greater tolerance for dissent. For the time being, though, the U.S. has to be content with a necessary ally from the same autocratic mold as President Park.

With reporting by S. Chang, Gary Lee

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