Are Koreans learning to see beyond region?

A small political revolution has occurred in the two major political parties' process for selecting the men who will face the voters Dec. 19 in the election to succeed President Kim Dae-jung.

In a departure from the smoke-filled-room practices of the past, when political bosses made deals and anointed nominees, the parties opened up the process a little. Candidates had to woo votes from a picked electorate consisting of party members and volunteer voters.

In the Millennium Democratic party, this primary election produced an upset when Roh Moo-hyun, 56, a former human rights lawyer, defeated the presumed favorite, Rhee In-je. The Grand National Party's primary was less dramatic, with the party leader, Lee Hoi-chang, 67, winning easily, as expected.

The two are among the first-generation of political progeny produced by the famous regional bosses known as the "Three Kims" -- former President Kim Young-sam, 75, President Kim Dae-jung, 77, and Kim Jong-pil,76 -- who have been dominant players in Korea's political life for almost all of the country's modern political history.

Both Mr. Roh and Mr. Lee hail from different regions than the traditional power bastions of their parties. Mr. Roh is a native of Busan, South Gyeongsang province; his Millennium Democratic Party is largely Jeolla-based. Mr. Lee is from Hwanghae, North Korea; his Grand National Party is mainly Gyeongsang-based.

Their emergence naturally raises the question whether Korea's politics will emerge from its traditional conflicts of region and personality and become organized around nationwide interests and issues. Evidence that that system is not working includes the jail terms served after their presidencies by Chun Doo Hwan and Roh Tae-woo, and the corruption scandals that engulfed the sons of Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung.

Regionalism has a long past in Korea, much of whose early history records fratricidal struggle among small Korean kingdoms. Persecution of the Jeolla region by dynastic kings was replicated in recent times when Gyeongsang-based military despots neglected or squeezed Jeolla. Kim Dae-jung's winning of the presidency was in part a vindication of the Jeolla region's claim to its share of the political spoils.

"Essentially, it is 'Jeolla phobia,'" says Simon Bok-ryong Shin, professor of political history at Konkuk University. "It began 1,000 years ago, and will continue for another 1,000 years." He cites the edict of Wang-gun, a Goryeo Dynasty king who from his deathbed in 943 ordered that Jeolla people not be hired for government service.

"The natives of the Jeolla provinces face both discrimination in getting jobs and disapproval by parents of prospective marriages," says Lee Nam-young, professor of political science at Sookmyung University.

Park Chung Hee is credited with engineering regionalism as we now know it: an exclusive and confrontational political divide between the Gyeongsang and Jeolla regions. Professor Yoon Pyung-joong of Hanshin University describes the dynamic as "hegemonic regionalism" in Gyeongsang and "rebellious regionalism" in Jeolla.

Facing the rising opposition politician Kim Dae-jung from Jeolla in the 1971 presidential election, Mr. Park cast the choice as one of regional loyalty. Local sentiment was forged into a political, social and economic divide affecting politics, government and business.

When, after years of authoritarian rule, direct election returned in the presidential election of 1987, the regional divide returned with it.

"Voters aligned with charismatic regional bosses because democracy had been achieved, and the four candidates were all making similar campaign pledges," explains Professor Cho Kisuk of Ewha Womans University's Graduate School of International Studies.

Arithmetic makes a regional strategy attractive in the Gyeongsang provinces, where 30 percent of the votes are. Jeolla voters cast their ballots in blocks, but account for only 11.7 percent of the electorate. The largest voter group is in Seoul and the surrounding Gyeonggi province, 45.6 percent, but partly because so many people in the capital were born elsewhere, this electorate is less tied to regional sentiment.

In 1987, all Three Kims ran against the ruling party's candidate, a former military strongman, Roh Tae-woo. Riding their regional bases -- Kim Young-sam in South Gyeongsang province, Kim Dae-jung in the Jeolla region and Kim Jong-pil in the central Chung-cheong region -- the Kims split the vote and permitted Mr. Roh to enter the Blue House with just 37 percent of the votes.

Five years later, Kim Young-sam created a strategy to turn regionalism to his advantage. Calculating that he could not win without uniting Gyeongsang voters against a candidate from the Jeolla provinces, he created a three-way party merger, joining the then-ruling party of Mr. Roh and allying with Kim Jong-pil. Some of Kim Young-sam's supporters left him, including the Millennium Democrats' new star, Roh Moo-hyun, who said, "Kim Young-sam shook hands with the devil that he has fought all his life."

But turning his political coat paid off. Mr. Kim won by raking in around 70 percent of the votes from Gyeong-sang region, offsetting poor showings of 4 percent in Jeolla and 36 percent in the Seoul area. Kim Dae-jung won 10 percent in Gyeongsang, 78 percent in Jeolla and 37 percent in Seoul.

In 1997, Kim Dae-jung's turn came at last. He benefited from a split in the then-ruling party. Mr. Kim's margin was narrow: 40.3 percent to Lee Hoi-chang's 38.7 percent. Rhee In-je, the third candidate, won 19.2 percent. Mr. Kim won 95 percent of the Jeolla votes, 14 percent in Gyeongsang and 44.9 percent in Seoul. Mr. Lee won 47 percent in Gyeongsang, 3 percent in Jeolla and 40.9 percent in Seoul. His low score in the Gyeongsang region is attributable to Mr. Rhee's 24.5 percent vote harvest there. Mr. Rhee's third-party run busted a regional block and put Kim Dae-jung in the Blue House.

Every campaign brings out civic activists to denounce regionalism. The Citizens' Alliance for the 2000 General Elections, blacklisted "unfit politicians" seeking legislative office that year and defined regionalism as "a drug addiction that numbs the wise judgment of the conscientious electorate."

The trouble is, regionalism pays off in the regions, where the voters are. In Korea, political and economic resources get distributed along regional, school and blood ties, in that order.

"Regional bosses reward loyal constituents with government appointments," says Pak Kyoung-san, a political scientist and sometime campaign strategist for political candidates. "Then those appointments spill over to affect appointments at state-run corporations and financial institutions." But if your region loses the election, the perks dry up. The Jeolla region was woefully underrepresented in the social, business and political arenas for years.

Among younger voters, there are signs of new thinking. "I do not deny that I have certain preconceptions about the Jeolla region," says a Seoul resident, 33, who hails from South Gyeongsang. "But I try not to take those sentiments into the voting booth."

A woman, 33, from North Gyeong-sang province recalls, "I remember having to vote for the ruling party, because my father's jobs seemed on the line. I really question that now."

"I don't think I belong to a specific region," says a Seoul housewife,35, whose roots lie in Jeolla province. "Besides, I think that they [the Three Kims] have exploited us enough."

The two contenders appear to be paying attention. Mr. Roh repeats the mantras of "national integration and eradication of corruption." Mr. Lee has the same message.

At the same time, Mr. Roh has unnerved the political arena with talk of a political realignment with "new democratic forces." Opposition politicians suspect an attempt to engineer a political realignment, as the Three Kims used to do. On April 30, Mr. Roh visited his old mentor and subsequent nemesis Kim Young-sam. When that drew an outcry, he backed off from realignment.

When voters are asked which party they support, more than half support none, Ewha's Ms. Cho notes. "Voters are going to see what policy alternatives the candidates offer," she adds. "People scoff when I say this, but voters are ready for realignment. The question is whether the politicians are up to it."

by Kim Ji-soo