BBC News Online: Despatches

Kim wins in Korea

South Korea's veteran opposition leader Kim Dae Jung has won the country's presidential election at his fourth attempt. It is a remarkable turn-around for the 73 year old politician who announced his retirement after his third defeat in 1992. The election was the closest in South Korean history, with barely one percentage point separating the two leading candidates. Charles Scanlon reports from Seoul.

Twenty-six years after making his first bid for the presidency Kim Dae Jung seems finally to have achieved his goal. At 73 some said he was too old for the job, but he ran a dogged campaign - demonstrating once again his life-long ambition to become President.

Kim Dae Jung is no longer the firebrand dissident of 20 years ago. He went out of his way to court conservative middle-class voters, blaming the government for the economic crisis of recent weeks.

The election itself was a cliff-hanger. Several hours after the count began only a few thousand votes separated the two leading contenders.

Kim Dae Jung has always been a controversial figure: he has long been accused by his opponents of having communist sympathies - something he has always denied strenuously. Until a few months ago many thought he had missed his chance of ever becoming President, but deep divisions within the ruling camp made his victory possible.

For the majority Grand National Party the result is a bitter blow. Its candidate Lee Hoi Chang fought his way back into contention after a disastrous start to the campaign.

This is the first time a ruling party in South Korea has ever lost the presidency. It will be a key test for the institutions of a young democracy, which is confronted for the first time in a generation with a recession and falling standards of living.

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