A DISSIDENT HAS HIS DAY

By NISID HAJARI

South Koreans didn't just get mad, they got even. Humiliated by a power structure that had brought their economy to its knees, voters threw the rascals out last week and chose a legendary dissident as their new President, the first opposition candidate they have ever elected. And so, after a long crusade for greater democracy and human rights, Kim Dae Jung finally takes charge of a government that jailed him, exiled him and attempted to assassinate him. It is an epochal choice for Korea, ushering in a promise of political transformation after a half-century of authoritarian orthodoxy and one-party rule. Already Kim has proposed a summit meeting with North Korea as a first move toward reconciliation on the divided Korean peninsula.

Kim's success is all the more remarkable against the background of South Korea's acute financial turmoil. While his popularity benefited from the economic malfeasance of the long-ruling Grand National Party--hastily renamed to distance itself from past mistakes--he is an unlikely leader for this difficult time. Kim's nationalistic populism is hardly the approach skittish investors are looking for, and he unnerved them during the campaign when he promised he would renegotiate the unpopular terms that were imposed by the International Monetary Fund in return for $57 billion to bail out the economy. Even as Kim slipped into office with 40.3% of the vote, moneymen around the world were wondering whether he had the strength and willingness to launch the far-reaching reforms needed to rebuild the economy.

Perhaps it took just such a dramatic moment to elevate a man who is loved and hated in equal measure. "People realized that this was the best chance to change the government," said Park Hong Keun, 28, a former student activist who was in hiding during the last election, held in 1992. Any reservations the voters had about Kim were overwhelmed by their hostility to the incumbent Administration for its role in the current crisis, and Establishment candidate Lee Hoi Chang could not free himself from the taint. More important, though, onetime firebrand Kim, 73, had by circumstance and strategy finally solved the calculus of Korean politics. Running in his fourth presidential campaign, he boasted that he had been preparing for the job "for 40 years." His pledge to renegotiate the IMF bailout appealed to his core constituency of workers and the poor. Kim managed to defuse fears that he was too old for the job when he joked that even "young President Clinton" wore a hearing aid, as Kim does.

The balloting marked another departure: election of a man from the much scorned southwest. "This is a real turning point for Korean political history, moving toward mature democracy by overcoming regional prejudice," said Hahm Chai Bong, a political-science professor at Yonsei University. Analysts credit campaign reforms with easing Koreans' strong provincial allegiances: limits imposed on campaign spending--and the introduction of TV debates and advertising--finally leveled the playing field enough for a true opposition candidate to compete with the Establishment machine.

Kim has spent his extraordinary career battling for greater individual freedoms even as an entrenched conservatocracy was willing to use any means to stop him. A gifted orator, he roused passionate, even violent, crowds at his pro-democracy protests. After mounting an unexpectedly strong challenge in his first presidential race in 1971, he was nearly killed when, suspiciously, a truck smashed into his car, leaving him with a permanent limp. Two years later, government agents shanghaied him from a Tokyo hotel to a ship at sea, where they planned to drown him. In 1980 the military government sentenced him to death for dissidence.

Just how much upheaval will Kim bring? The President-elect moved quickly to reassure the anxious markets. "I will adhere to the agreement already reached with the IMF and faithfully carry out reforms," Kim promised the nation the morning after his win. Well aware of how deep antipathy toward him runs among conservatives, Kim will need to reach out immediately if he is to amass enough support to push through those prescriptions. Last week he successfully requested pardons for two ex-Presidents who, as generals, had persecuted him.

Just as quickly he will need to shed the candidate's instinct to please everyone as often as possible. "It doesn't matter who makes what promises to get votes," said an executive at one of Korea's largest conglomerates, or chaebol, "because their policies will be bounded by IMF guidelines." Within those limits, though, Kim's background does give reason for hope. His strong labor credentials could help keep workers off the streets when the layoffs begin. And as IMF reforms dissolve the cozy networks that have wed politicians and chaebol executives, the longtime outsider will finally have his chance to present the country with a new vision.

--Reported by Stella Kim/Seoul

With reporting by STELLA KIM/SEOUL