South Korea Old Friends

By Michael S. Serrill

The nominating convention was a week away. The election would not be held for months. But in the authoritarian political system of South Korea, the vote that counts most is that of President Chun Doo Hwan, 56. Last week Chun gave his official blessing to the man who will likely be South Korea's next President: Roh Tae Woo, 54, a retired army general and chairman of the ruling Democratic Justice Party.

The South Korean leader made his long-awaited choice of a successor before a dinner at Blue House, the presidential residence, attended by the 29-member central executive committee of the D.J.P. Though party officials burst into cheers, the President's own praise of his designated successor was understated. Chun said merely that Roh would make a good President because he is "knowledgeable in security affairs and has wide experience in national administration."

Once he is officially chosen as the government's candidate, Roh will stand for election before a college of electors that is expected to be dominated by the military-backed ruling party. Opposition leaders have threatened to boycott the vote, which should come next winter, and have called for direct presidential elections. Under the existing electoral-college system, Chun, who will step down in February, won 92% of the vote in 1981.

South Korea has been plagued in recent months by student-led demonstrations demanding direct elections. Chun intensified the opposition to his regime by declaring on April 13 that no constitutional reform would be considered until after the 1988 Summer Olympic Games in Seoul. Though Roh has a reputation as a conciliator, the opposition Reunification Democratic Party dismissed his selection by Chun as "just another act in the political script of the ruling party designed to extend power."

The modest and somewhat bookish Roh is one of Chun's oldest associates and few close friends. They graduated together from the Korean Military Academy in 1955, and both served with the South Korean military contingent during the war in Viet Nam. After President Park Chung Hee was assassinated by the head of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency in 1979, Roh's troops were instrumental in carrying out the military coup that brought Chun to power.

Since he retired from the military in 1981, Roh has held several posts in Chun's Cabinet. From 1984 to 1986 he was chairman of the Seoul Olympic Organizing Committee. But until recently, his nomination for the presidency was by no means assured. Within Chun's inner circle, Roh vied for power with Prime Minister Lho Shin Yong and Chang Se Dong, head of the Agency for National Security Planning, successor to the KCIA. Of the three, Chang, also a former general, seemed to wield the most power. But two weeks ago, both Chang and Lho were knocked out of the race when Chun dismissed them from office as part of a Cabinet reshuffle brought on by the torture death of a student and the subsequent cover-up scandal.

Chun's designated political heir is described as somewhat less imposing than the confident and unbending leader who anointed him. Says one insider: "If you meet Chun for 30 minutes, he speaks for 25 and listens to you for five. In the case of Roh, he will probably speak for five minutes and listen the rest of the time." Indeed, Roh is so cautious that Opposition Leader Kim Young Sam once described his political style as "like walking on a thinly frozen lake."

After his selection by Chun, Roh reacted with seeming reluctance. "Now that this is the fate I cannot avoid facing," he told reporters, "I will devote all my body and soul to the mission." Even so, South Koreans speculated that Roh would need a lot of help from behind the scenes, help that his old friend Chun would be more than happy to provide.

With reporting by Barry Hillenbrand and K.C. Hwang/Seoul