1997 South Korean presidential election

1997 South Korean presidential election

18 December 1997
Turnout	80.65% ( 1.24pp)
Nominee Kim Dae-jung Lee Hoi-chang Lee In-je Party National Congress Grand National New National Popular vote 10,326,275 9,935,718 4,925,591 Percentage 40.27% 38.75% 19.21%
Results by provincial-level divisions
President before election Kim Young-sam Independent Elected President Kim Dae-jung National Congress

Presidential elections were held in South Korea on 18 December 1997. The result was a victory for opposition candidate Kim Dae-jung, who won with 40% of the vote. When he took office in 1998, it marked the first time in Korean history that the ruling party peacefully transferred power to the opposition party.

Nominations

National Congress for New Politics

The NCNP National Convention was held on 19 May at Olympic Gymnastics Arena. Kim Dae-jung, a former 6-term lawmaker from South Jeolla, was nominated for president, defeating Chyung Dai-chul, a former four-term lawmaker from Seoul.

Candidate	Delegates	%
Kim Dae-jung	3,223	78.04
Chyung Dai-chul	907	21.96
Total	4,130	100.00
Valid votes	4,130	99.35
Invalid/blank votes	27	0.65
Total votes	4,157	100.00

New Korea Party

The ruling New Korea Party's presidential nominating convention took place on 21 July at Olympic Gymnastics Arena, during which former Prime Minister Lee Hoi-chang defeated former Gyeonggi governor Lee In-je after two rounds of voting and became the party's nominee.

Candidate	First round		Second round
	Delegates	%	Delegates	%
Lee Hoi-chang	4,963	41.13	6,922	59.96
Lee In-je	1,776	14.72	4,622	40.04
Lee Han-dong	1,771	14.68
Kim Deok-ryong	1,674	13.87
Lee Soo-sung	1,648	13.66
Choi Byung-ryul	236	1.96
Total	12,068	100.00	11,544	100.00

United Liberal Democrats

The ULD National Convention held on 24 June at Olympic Gymnastics Arena overwhelmingly nominated 8-term lawmaker Kim Jong-pil from South Chungcheong for president.

Candidate	Delegates	%
Kim Jong-pil	2,575	82.29
Han Young-soo	554	17.71
Total	3,129	100.00

Democratic Party

On 11 September, the Democratic Party, once the premier opposition to the New Koreans but a fringe party ever since the defection of Kim Dae-jung's faction in 1995, nominated Seoul mayor Cho Soon for president.

New National Party

On 4 November, former NKP politicians unhappy with Lee Hoi-chang founded the New National Party and nominated Lee In-je for president. This was after the scandal regarding Lee Hoi-chang's sons being excused from the military service hit the news cycle and brought Lee's popularity down.

Campaign

Early polls showed Lee Hoi-chang leading Kim Dae-jung by as much as 30 percentage points.

Lee Hoi-chang's lead was lost when press reports emerged that Lee’s two sons had evaded military conscription by shedding weight before their physical examinations. The South Korean public tends to be intolerant towards men who attempt to evade mandatory military service or receive special treatment. Lee In-je then launched his own bid for the presidency, claiming that Lee Hoi-chang could not win the election and stood for a generational shift in South Korean politics as he was 20 years younger than any candidate in the race. These developments led to Kim leading in the polls by a slender margin.

The election also took place in the context of the IMF crisis where South Korea was forced to accept an IMF bailout on 3 December amidst an economic crash.

Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-pil form an alliance

Kim Dae-jung, or "D.J." and Kim Jong-pil, or "J.P." agreed on 3 November to form an alliance against their common enemy, Lee Hoi-chang. In this agreement, JP announced to withdraw his bid for president to endorse DJ, and in turn DJ would appoint JP as the prime minister once elected president. The two Kims also agreed to revise the Constitution after the election from presidential system to parliamentary system, and the NCNP and ULD would cooperate on different issues as a coalition government. Kim Dae-jung shocked his supporters with this move as Kim Jong-pil prominently served as prime minister under the Park Chung-hee authoritarian regime of the 1960s and 70s to join his ticket even though Kim was targeted by the Park regime as a political dissident, surviving government assassination attempts and imprisonment.

Anti-Kim Coalition: the Grand National Party

On the other hand, needing a breakthrough as Kim Dae-jung's popularity soared, Lee Hoi-chang and Cho Soon also agreed to combine forces. On 21 November, the New Korea Party and Democratic Party merged into one party, and was founded as the Grand National Party. Cho Soon was made the chairman of the party, and Lee Hoi-chang the candidate for president.

The election was also the first to feature election debates between the candidates.

Results

With a winning margin of 1.52%, the 1997 presidential elections were the closest until the 2022 presidential elections.

Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Kim Dae-jung	National Congress for New Politics	10,326,275	40.27
	Lee Hoi-chang	Grand National Party	9,935,718	38.75
	Lee In-je	New National Party	4,925,591	19.21
	Kwon Young-ghil	People's Victory for 21st Century	306,026	1.19
	Shin Jeong Yil	Unified Korea Party	61,056	0.24
	Kim Han-sik	Honest Politics Unite	48,717	0.19
	Huh Kyung-young	Republican Party	39,055	0.15
Total			25,642,438	100.00
Valid votes			25,642,438	98.46
Invalid/blank votes			400,195	1.54
Total votes			26,042,633	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			32,290,416	80.65
Source: Nohlen et al.

By region

regions · provinces · cities
		Kim Dae-jung NCNP	Lee Hoi-chang GNP	Lee In-je NNP
Sudogwon	Seoul	44.9%	40.9%	12.8%
	Incheon	38.5%	36.4%	23.0%
	Gyeonggi	39.3%	35.5%	23.6%
Gangwon		23.8%	43.2%	30.9%
Chungcheong	Daejeon	45.0%	29.2%	24.1%
	Chungcheongbuk	37.4%	30.8%	29.4%
	Chungcheongnam	48.3%	23.5%	26.1%
Honam (Jeolla)	Gwangju	97.3%	1.3%	0.7%
	Jeollabuk	92.3%	4.5%	2.1%
	Jeollanam	94.6%	3.2%	1.4%
Yeongnam (Gyeongsang)	Busan	15.3%	53.3%	29.8%
	Ulsan	15.4%	51.4%	26.7%
	Daegu	12.5%	72.7%	13.1%
	Gyeongsangbuk	13.7%	61.9%	21.8%
	Gyeongsangnam	11.0%	55.1%	31.3%
Jeju		40.6%	36.6%	20.5%

See also

• X-file scandal