Easy first day for Kim's 3d aide nominee

President Kim Dae-jung's nominee for prime minister, Kim Suk-soo, appears to be having an easier time in the National Assembly than his two predecessors as nominees for the job, despite admitting that he did not pay taxes on some financial transfers to his children. The nominations of the first two candidates were both rejected because of what legislators said were ethical lapses in their background.

Mr. Kim is a former head of the Government Public Officials Ethics Committee.

Lawmakers questioned him about his income tax reports as well. One Grand National Party lawmaker, Kim Seong-jo, noted that his reported family income for the past five years is the same as the increase in wealth he reported during the same period. That raised the question, Assemblyman Kim said, of how Mr. Kim supported his family if all his income went to investments.

Mr. Kim denied any income tax evasion, but did not address the details of the charge. Another GNP lawmaker echoed the charge and broadened it into an attack on the ethics of lawyers in general. Kim Hak-song commented during Tuesday's hearing, "Taking into consideration the customary practice in the legal profession, it is unlikely that Mr. Kim, a former Supreme Court judge and lawyer, reported his real income to the tax office."

Mr. Kim said that he would pay the inheritance taxes due, if any, on the transfers of funds to his children. He also denied any irregularities in his son's exemption from military service, saying that the youth had a degenerative disease.

Lawmakers also grilled Mr. Kim over his acquisition of 500 shares of Samsung Electronics in 1999 when he served as an outside director at the firm. The former owner of the shares forfeited them when he failed to make the last installment payments on the share purchase. "The candidate received a preference because he acquired the shares at a below-market price," said Won You-chul, a Millennium Democrat. Mr. Kim denied having received any such special treatment.

But most of the questioning seemed to reflect a lack of interest in pushing hard; observers said the Grand National Party may have decided that it would do more harm than good to reject a third candidate for the job.

The hearings will end Wednesday; the Assembly will vote on the nomination on Saturday.

by Song Sang-hoon, Kim Jung-ha