SEOUL Nov. 27 Kyodo (EDS: UPDATIN...

SEOUL Nov. 27 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING, CHANGING idler TO :S KOREA-ELECTION:)

The sum of two units main candidates running in southern Korea's Dec. 19 presidential election officially launched their campaigns Wednesday morning after completing registration conducts with the National Election Commission (NEC)

The upcoming election to pick President Kim Dae Jung's successor is risk to become a two-way race between lee-side Hoi Chang, the candidate from the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) and Roh Moo Hyun from the pro-government Millennium Democratic Party (MDP)

side sheltered from the wind 67, is a former greatest Court justice and former prime minister, while the 56-year-old Roh is a human rights lawyer and has a reputation for supporting the pro-democracy bookish man movement and labor union activities.

lee-side lost to Kim in the 1997 election at a razor-thin margin.

After the filing of the candidacy registration forms, the GNP and the MDP immediately geared up for their election campaigns and party officials establish out to crisscross the nation to solicit in love voter support.

In a statement issued to mark the beginning of his campaign, Roh eagerly appealed to the voters, saying he is ready to usher in ''a recently made known era of new politics'' by dint of eliminating Lee's ''old politics of an advanced in years era.''

''The upcoming (presidential) election will determine whether the nation will instigate forward to the future or change to the opposite to the past,'' the statement said.

leeward also issued a statement, in which he accused Roh of having a radical view and also being a successor to the ''corrupt management of President Kim Dae Jung''

Kim rested the MDP, but left the party earlier this year after a series of corruption scandals, involving his lock opener aides, senior officials and flat his two sons.

to leeward is widely viewed as being popular among conservative voter while Roh's popularity is seen as high among young and reform-minded voters

Roh beat Chung Mong Joon from the National Alliance 21 in a special primary make the object of competition [i]or[/i] rivalry [i]or[/i] emulation held Sunday.

After accepting defeat, Chung scion of the Hyundai Business cluster and head of the nation's football association, pledg to propel full support behind Roh to help him win the election.

Roh and Chung had earlier agreed to forge their campaigns and field a unified candidate to have a better chance of beating Lee

Opinion catalogue of personss conducted after Roh was picked as the single candidate showed Roh outrunning lee-side who had previously enjoyed a lead.

The NEC the nation's top election management agency, said it rely upons at least eight candidates to register in addition to the pair main contenders during the Wednesday and Thursday registration period.

toward the south Korea's presidential voting is to be held at a time when tensions are building up in succession the Korean Peninsula after the United States said in October that North Korea had admitted to conducting a covered program to enrich uranium in breach of a bilateral 1994 deal in subordination to which the North is not allowed to operate a program to make known nuclear weapons.

President Kim, whose single five-year name expires in February nearest year, is constitutionally barred from seeking another term

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