Will He or Won't He?

"Kim Dae Jung! Kim Dae Jung!" That cry greeted South Korea's best-known opposition leader last week as he visited his native Cholla region for the first time in 16 years. Though Kim, 63, called the trip a "sentimental journey of the heart," the adulation he met transformed the three-day tour into a political triumph. It also raised anew a hot question: Would Kim break a vow not to run for office and seek to become a candidate in December, when South Korea holds its first democratic presidential elections since 1971?

Kim certainly acted like a man on the hustings. His voice cracking with emotion, he delivered a fiery address in a cemetery in Kwangju, where at least 191 people died in a 1980 uprising against South Korea's military rulers. Hundreds of thousands of onlookers then surged into the street behind Kim's car and followed it to Kwangju's main square, where Kim promised higher wages for workers and better crop prices for farmers.

A presidential candidate in 1971 who was subsequently kidnaped, imprisoned and sentenced to death, Kim declared that the "trip far exceeded my expectations." But he said he plans to make more tours before deciding whether to run. An adviser to the Reunification Democratic Party, Kim remains wary of challenging Kim Young Sam, 59, the party's president. Neither man wants to split the opposition vote in the race against Roh Tae Woo, the candidate of the ruling Democratic Justice Party. While Kim may finally settle for the role of elder statesman, the cheers in Kwangju last week would make any politician think twice.