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The ongoing Big Bang currently rocking the Korean political scene is deepening the chronic problems that characterize the nation's politics, such as politicians frequently changing party affiliation, regional animosity, and "boss rule", analysts said yesterday.

All signs indicate some age-old political difficulties will once again plague the April 13 general elections.

Politicians who have failed to gain nominations from the opposition party are moving to form a new political force, allying themselves with splinter groups though they have little in common with these organizations politically or ideologically.

All the established political groups and the envisioned new party are bent on increasing their chances for victory by playing on traditional regional rivalries, which have often been the deciding factor in past Korean polls.

Former President Kim Young-sam, who along with President Kim Dae-jung and former Prime Minister Kim Jong-pil, has long been blamed for making the Korean political arena the exclusive domain of the "three Kims," has suddenly reappeared at the forefront of the political scene.

These recent developments are a source of increasing concern to the Korean public, already frustrated with the impediments facing the launch of an unprecedented political reform campaign.

It is ironic that the current Big Bang in Korean politics - the impending launch of a party made up of renegade politicians and the split of the two ruling coalition parties - is in fact a product of the civic movement.

The major promoters of the new political force are factional leaders from the Grand National Party (GNP) who failed to gain party tickets for the upcoming elections.

The GNP members passed over in the nomination process included allegedly "corrupt and incompetent" lawmakers blacklisted by major civic groups and branded unfit to run in the election race. The GNP deserters accuse party leader Lee Hoi-chang of using the civic groups' blacklist to purge his rivals from the party ahead of the next presidential polls.

The deserters' move to form a new political force with the elections less than two months away is drawing harsh public criticism.

"I don't believe the founding members of the envisaged party share common political or ideological convictions," said Prof. Hwang Sung-don of the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.

Promoters of the new party include conservative GNP defectors such as Reps. Kim Yoon-hwan, Lee Ki-taek and Shin Sang-woo; Cho Soon, a reform-minded scholar-turned-politician, and Chang Ki-pyo, chairman of the Reformists' Party for the New Age, a leading progressive group.

Kim Yong-hwan, who founded the Hopeful New Korea Party after parting ways with former Prime Minister Kim Jong-pil, and former Prime Minster Lee Soo-sung, who once considered joining President Kim's ruling party, are set to join the new force.

Critics say that the new political union only serves to highlight the ugly aspects of Korean politics, where dissolving and creating parties, effecting mergers, and changing loyalties for political gains are all virtually everyday practices.

Analysts said the dissent within the GNP and the dissolution of the coalition are likely to fuel regional animosity, the No.1 problem in Korean politics, and further imperil the current political situation.

Former GNP members assuming a lead role in the planned party hail from the southeast Kyongsang provinces, including the cities of Taegu and Pusan.

Opinion polls already indicate that some voters in the region are shifting their support from the GNP to the new organization.

Analysts noted that the United Liberal Democrats (ULD)'s decision to end its two-year-long partnership with President Kim's MDP is also aimed at consolidating the ULD power base in the Chungchong provinces ahead of the April elections.

"I believe that because of the political groups' moves, regional sentiments will dictate the course of the upcoming parliamentary elections in a way they never have before," Hwang said.

He predicted that if the elections become a four-way competition, each of the four groups will fare well only in their respective home grounds, further aggravating regional rivalry.

President Kim's MDP commands a high level of support in the southwest Cholla provinces, where the Kyongsang provinces are viewed with suspicion. The GNP and the planned new party are expected to wage an intense battle in the Kyongsang region. The ULD is expected to dominate the Chungchong provinces. The MDP and the GNP are likely to duel in the Seoul metropolitan area and other provincial regions.

Park Won-soon, an attorney who leads a civic coalition for the April election, said that the resurgence of regional sentiments and the formation of the new party run counter to the Korean people's desire for political reform.

"The people want to establish a new political framework, and this will be possible only when the voters pass judgement impartially (in the elections)," Park said.

Park's coalition is waging a nationwide campaign to disqualify parliamentary candidates who were nominated despite being included on its blacklist.