2 S. Korea Candidates Plan Unity Cabinet : Premier Would Be From Competing Party, Kim Dae Jung Says

SEOUL, South Korea —  Both major opposition candidates for president in the election scheduled for next week pledged Tuesday to name a coalition cabinet “encompassing all democratic forces.”

One of the two, Kim Dae Jung, who was the sole opposition candidate in the last free election for president, in 1971, promised to appoint a prime minister from outside the ranks of his newly formed Party for Peace and Democracy.

He also held out an olive branch to the other major opposition candidate, Kim Young Sam, promising to take members of his Reunification Democratic Party into his own party and embrace “all dissident groups and democratic forces.”

In rallies at Inchon and Pupyong, Kim Dae Jung promised to form a “real coalition, a pan-national government.”

Kim Young Sam, in a televised speech, promised to set up a “grand pan-national coalition of democratic forces.”

But, unlike his rival, he said nothing about the post of prime minister. Under South Korea’s new presidential system, the prime minister will direct government administration but have no power to make policy.

Just a week before the Dec. 16 election, the two opposition leaders and Roh Tae Woo, the government party candidate, are still locked in a close race, and no one is expected to receive a majority of the votes. If either Kim Young Sam or Kim Dae Jung wins, he could form a majority coalition.

However, bitter rivalry between the two, fueled by regional differences, promises to complicate any attempt to revive the alliance that linked them until September. The alliance collapsed when they failed to agree on which of them should be the opposition candidate for president.

According to the Reuters news agency, hundreds of university students demonstrated Tuesday before the party headquarters of the two opposition leaders. Witnesses said the protesters urged the two Kims to forge a compromise by Thursday under which they would field one candidate and form a coalition government after an opposition victory.

Meanwhile, Roh’s candidacy was given a substantial boost by a series of government announcements. Topping the list was a 14-year, $4.4-billion national development plan that includes industrial complexes and expressways throughout the country.

Also, a government prospecting firm announced that natural gas has been found off the southeast coast in an area where exploratory drilling has been going on for 15 years. There was no estimate of how much gas might be involved.

Finally, the government-backed Korea Institute for Economics and Technology forecast that South Korea’s trade surplus with the United States will rise to $9.9 billion next year, compared with the $9.2 billion expected this year. Last year, the United States had a $7.1-billion trade deficit with South Korea.