MDP race melts to 3 candidates; Roh seen gainer

The Millennium Democratic Party's presidential nomination contest narrowed to three contenders Monday when Kim Joong-kwon, a senior adviser to the party and a former presidential chief of staff, announced his withdrawal from the race.

In a news conference at the party's headquarters, Mr. Kim cited insurmountable regionalism for giving up his presidential hopes. He had stood third with 12.6 percent of the overall votes after Sunday's primary election in Gangwon province, far behind the two leaders, Rhee In-je and Roh Moo-hyun. Chung Dong-young is the third candidate still running. He said he was staying in the race.

"I became a primary candidate in an effort to unite the regional spirits of Yeongnam and Honam," Mr. Kim said. "However, I lost heart when I saw the votes in Daejeon and South Chungcheong province get concentrated on the candidates who are from those regions." Mr. Kim comes from the Yeongnam region, in the Gyeongsang provinces, while the Millennium Democratic Party is Honam-based, that is, strong in the Jeolla provinces.

The primary results in Gwangju shocked him, Mr. Kim said. That Honam city gave an upset victory to Mr. Roh, another Yeongnam candidate.

Mr. Kim is the fourth candidate to withdraw from the race, following Kim Keun-tae, You Jong-keun and Hahn Hwa-kap.

Mr. Kim denied that his departure was designed to assist another candidate, but Mr. Rhee's camp found the news distressing, as electors who support Mr. Kim are thought more likely now to turn to Mr. Roh than Mr. Rhee.

"This is an unexpected shock," said an aide to Mr. Rhee. "We'll have to see what effect it will have on the primaries before we act."

Other aides voiced suspicions that Mr. Kim was "herding the votes for a certain person." In an interview with KBS Radio on Monday afternoon, Mr. Rhee refused to give an outright answer to whether he was going to accept the primary results even if he lost. "It's not a question of accepting or not accepting," he said. "Everyone needs to take his own responsibility and decide."

Mr. Roh's aides weren't frowning. "Mr. Kim mentioned the primary results in Gwangju and the uniting of regional spirits in his withdrawal speech," a Roh aide said, emphasizing that his candidate was now the only Yeongnam representative remaining.

by Song Sang-hoon