2d MDP Lawmaker Declares Candidacy

Declaring himself the "legitimate heir to DJ," Representative Hahn Hwa-kap, 62, of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party announced Tuesday that he will run for the party's nomination for the 2002 presidential election.

"I am the only politician with legitimacy, historicalness and continuity," Mr. Hahn asserted. "I will succeed both the accomplishments and the debts of President Kim Dae-jung to come forward and be evaluated by history." The initials DJ are a common moniker for Kim Dae-jung.

Speaking before some 20,000 supporters at the Olympic Fencing Stadium in Jamsil, southern Seoul, Mr. Hahn said he will exercise an integrated leadership that will "achieve regional and class harmony." He said he is capable of bringing peace to the Korean Peninsula and is diplomatically adroit enough to turn Korea into a Northeast Asian transport hub.

Sixty-eight fellow Millennium Democrats attended the rally, including Han Kwang-ok, the party's chairman and acting president.

Mr. Hahn is the second Millennium Democrat to officially announce his candidacy for president. Kim Joong-kwon, a former party chairman, threw his hat into the ring last week.

Mr. Hahn said the ruling party should hold a convention in January to install a new party leader to fill the vacancy left by President Kim's resignation from the top party post.

"The party's presidential candidate should be named after the June local elections," he said.

Mr. Hahn said he will hit the campaign trail, starting in Gwangju, next month.

Mr. Hahn, a native of Shinan, South Jeolla province, is a three-term lawmaker. He entered politics in 1967, winning a National Assembly seat in a district in Mokpo, South Jeolla province.

by Kang Min-seok