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SOUTH KOREA | MARCH 2, 1998 VOL. 151 NO. 8 |
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Part of the secret to Kim's early success has been the public response to the crisis. Militant labor union officials admit that they canceled plans to launch a strike against the new layoff legislation after a barrage of letters from ordinary citizens pleading with them to cooperate. Storefronts throughout the capital sport signs citing the IMF and offering Korean goods at deep discounts. Many Seoul residents have stopped driving to work, easing the city's legendary traffic jams. Expense accounts have been curbed. Teachers are imploring elementary school students to use their pencils until they are mere stubs. In some Seoul neighborhoods, street-lamps have been extinguished and apartment building elevators are stopping at every other floor to save energy. And there is the now-legendary effort by Koreans to refill the government's foreign exchange coffers by donating gold jewelry and hard currency. Such patriotic fervor will do little to solve Korea's financial problems. But in combination with Kim's early administrative moves, the enthusiasm for reform has helped draw support from investors and international financial experts. For the time being, the won has halted its freefall, and the financial markets, while by no means vibrant, are at least showing signs of life. IMF managing director Michel Camdessus has publicly saluted Korea's efforts, in contrast to Indonesia's. Last week, credit rating agency Standard & Poor's upgraded Korea's foreign currency credit from B-plus to double B-plus. The real test, however, is yet to come. Says Kim: "It is not true to say that the worst is over." The near-consensus in Korea is that if anyone can pull off such a monumental rescue, it is Kim Dae Jung. Born the second son of a farmer on the tiny island of Ha Eui, Kim grew up with his father's passion for books and philosophy, though without formal schooling until his parents moved to Mokpo, on the mainland, in 1937 so that Kim could get an education. Initially a devoted student, Kim grew increasingly rebellious toward Korea's Japanese occupiers. (Korean was banned in schools, and Kim's father refused to learn Japanese.) As Japan grew more desperate toward the end of World War II, schools were closed and Kim started a career in the shipping business. But the young rebel was already dabbling in anti-establishment politics. On a business trip to Seoul during the Korean War, Kim's future materialized when, as he says, "I saw the suffering of the people caused by bad politics." In early 1961, a popular uprising felled Republican President Syngman Rhee. Kim was elected to the National Assembly, a job that lasted just one month, until General Park Chung Hee took over in a coup. Since then, Kim has led Korea's political opposition. He had been flirting with anti-establishment views even before the outbreak of the Korean War; once the armistice was signed, he plunged ever deeper into politics, educating himself with long hours in the stacks at the National Assembly library. With 13 speeches during his first six months as a legislator, Kim made his mark as a fiery anti-Park orator. The more Kim was persecuted, the more popular he became. In 1970, against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, he announced his liberal views on North-South reunification. The government propaganda machine responded with a campaign to brand the young politician a communist outcast. Still, his first bid for the presidency won him a remarkable 46% of the vote, though he lost out to Park Chung Hee. Kim's real troubles began when Park scrapped Korea's constitution and declared himself the country's dictator-in-chief. It was 1972, and Kim was on a trip to Japan for medical treatment. Rather than face arrest, he decided to proselytize abroad against the Park regime. In retaliation, Park confined Kim's family to their modest Seoul home. Kim's aides in Korea were subjected to interrogation and often torture. In August 1973, Kim was kidnapped by unidentified Koreans from Tokyo's Grand Palace Hotel and readied for execution. Only American intervention saved his life: learning of the abduction, U.S. Ambassador Philip Habib bluntly warned Park of the repercussions for relations with the U.S. if Kim were killed. In an interview with Seoul's Dong A newspaper last week, former Korea Central Intelligence Agency assistant director Lee Chul Hee admitted for the first time what many have long assumed: that the kidnapping was ordered by the head of the kcia.
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