Kim Dae-jung (3 December 192518 August 2009) was
PresidentThe President of the Republic of Korea is, according to the Constitution of the Republic of Korea, chief executive of the government, commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and the head of state of the Republic of Korea...
of South Korea from 1998 to 2003, and the 2000
Nobel Peace PrizeThe Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:...
recipient. A Roman Catholic since 1957, he has been called the "
Nelson MandelaNelson Rolihlahla Mandela is a former President of South Africa, the first to be elected in a fully representative democratic election, who held office from 1994–99. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of the African National Congress's armed wing Umkhonto...
of Asia" for his long-standing opposition to authoritarian rule.
Early life
The son of a middle-class farmer, Kim was born in
MokpoMokpo is a city in South Jeolla Province, South Korea, on the southwestern tip of the Korean Peninsula. Mokpo has frequent train service to Seoul and is the terminus for a number of ferry routes serving islands in the adjacent Yellow Sea...
in what was then the
JeollaJeolla was one of the eight provinces of Korea during the Joseon Dynasty. Jeolla was located in the southwest of Korea. The provincial capital was Jeonju.-History:...
province; the city is now in South Jeolla province. Kim graduated from Mokpo Commercial High School in 1943 at the top of the class. After working as a clerk for a Japanese-owned shipping company during the Japanese occupation of Korea, he became its owner and became very rich. Kim escaped Communist capture during the
Korean WarThe Korean War is a war that started between North Korea and South Korea on 25 June 1950 and paused with an armistice signed 27 July, 1953...
.
Kim first entered politics in 1954 during the administration of Korea's first president,
Syngman RheeSyngman Rhee or Yi Seungman was the first president of South Korea. His presidency, from August 1948 to April 1960, remains controversial, affected by Cold War tensions on the Korean peninsula and elsewhere. Rhee was regarded as an anti-Communist and a strongman, and led South Korea through the...
. Although he was elected as a representative for the
National AssemblyThe National Assembly of South Korea is a 299-member unicameral legislature. The latest general elections were held on April 9, 2008. Single-member constituencies comprise 245 of the National Assembly's seats, while the remaining 54 are allocated by proportional representation...
in 1961, a military coup led by
Park Chung-heePark Chung-hee was a former ROK Army general and president of South Korea from 1961 to 1979. He has been criticized for his authoritarian way of ruling the country , but is also credited with the industrialization of the Republic of Korea through export-led growth...
, who later assumed dictatorial powers, voided the elections. He was able to win a seat in the House in the subsequent elections in 1963 and 1967 and went on to become an eminent opposition leader. As such, he was the natural opposition candidate for the country's presidential election in 1971. He nearly defeated Park, despite several handicaps on his candidacy which were imposed by the ruling regime.
A very talented orator, Kim could command unwavering loyalty among his supporters. His staunchest support came from the
JeollaJeolla was one of the eight provinces of Korea during the Joseon Dynasty. Jeolla was located in the southwest of Korea. The provincial capital was Jeonju.-History:...
region, where he reliably garnered upwards of 95% of the popular vote, a record that has remained unsurpassed in South Korean politics.
Kim was almost killed in August 1973, when he was kidnapped from a hotel in Tokyo by
KCIAThe National Intelligence Service is the chief intelligence agency of South Korea. The agency was officially established in 1961 as the Korea Central Intelligence Agency , during the rule of President Park Chung-hee's military Supreme Council for National Reconstruction, which displaced the...
agents in response to his criticism of President Park's
yushin program, which granted enormous powers to the president. Although Kim returned to
SeoulSeoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest city of South Korea. With a population of over 10 million, it is one of the world's largest cities. The Seoul National Capital Area, which includes the major port city of Incheon and most of Gyeonggi-do, has 24.5 million...
alive, he was banned from politics and imprisoned in 1976 for having participated in the proclamation of an anti-government manifesto and sentenced for five years in prison, which was reduced to house arrest in 1978.
Kim was reinstated in 1979 after Park was assassinated. However in 1980, Kim was arrested and sentenced to death on charges of sedition and conspiracy in the wake of another coup by
Chun Doo-hwanChun Doo-hwan is a retired former ROK Army general who served as President of South Korea from 1980 to 1988...
and a
popular uprisingThe Gwangju Democratization Movement refers to a popular uprising in the city of Gwangju, South Korea from May 18 to May 27, 1980. During this period, citizens rose up against Chun Doo-hwan's military dictatorship and took control of the city...
in
GwangjuGwangju Metropolitan City is the sixth largest city in South Korea. It is a designated metropolitan city under the direct control of the central government's Home Minister...
, his political stronghold. With the intervention of the United States government, the sentence was commuted to 20 years in prison and later he was given exile to the U.S. Kim temporarily settled in Boston and taught at
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
as a visiting professor to the Center for International Affairs, until he chose to return to his homeland in 1985. During his period abroad, he authored a number of opinion pieces in leading Western newspapers that were sharply critical of his government.
Pope John Paul II sent a letter to then-South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan on 11 December 1980, asking for "clemency" for Kim, a Catholic, who had been sentenced to death a week before. The National Archives of Korea revealed the contents of the letter at the request of the "Kwangju Ilbo," the local daily newspaper in Gwangju (Kwangju).
Kim Dae-jung took the name
Thomas MoreSir Thomas More , also known as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, scholar, author, and statesman....
as his Christian name at his
BaptismIn Christianity, baptism is the ritual act, with the use of water, by which one is admitted to membership of the Christian Church and, in the view of some, as a member of the particular Church in which the baptism is administered.The usual form of baptism among the earliest Christians was for the...
. Thus, his name is most correctly written as Thomas More Kim Dae-jung.
Road to the presidency
Kim was again put under house arrest upon his return to Seoul, but resumed his role as one of the principal leaders of the political opposition. When Chun Doo-hwan succumbed to the popular demand in 1987 and allowed the first democratic presidential election to take place since the 1972 coup, Kim Dae-jung and
Kim Young-samKim Young-sam was the first civilian President of South Korea since a series of dictatorships beginning with Park Chung-hee. Kim Young-sam was inaugurated on 25 February 1993 and served a single 5-year term...
both ran. As a result, the opposition vote was split in two, with Kim Young-sam receiving 28% and Kim Dae-jung 27% of the vote. The ex-general
Roh Tae-wooRoh Tae-woo Roh Tae-woo Roh Tae-woo ....
— Chun Doo-hwan's hand-picked successor — won easily with 36.5% of the popular vote.
In 1992, Kim made yet another failed bid for the presidency, this time solely against Kim Young-sam, who won as a candidate for the ruling party. Many thought Kim Dae-jung's political career was effectively over when he took a hiatus from politics and departed for the United Kingdom to take a position at
Clare HallClare Hall is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It is a college for advanced study, admitting only postgraduate students.Informality is a defining value at Clare Hall and this contributes to its unique character...
,
Cambridge UniversityThe University of Cambridge , located in the City of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, is the second oldest university in the English-speaking world and the fourth oldest in Europe...
as a visiting scholar. However, in 1995 he announced his return to politics and began his fourth quest for the presidency.
The situation became favorable for him when the public revolted against the incumbent government in the wake of the nation's economic collapse in the Asian financial crisis just weeks before the presidential election. Allied with
Kim Jong-pilKim Jong-pil is a South Korean politician and founder of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency , who served as Prime Minister twice, from 1971–1975 and from 1998–2000....
, he defeated
Lee Hoi-changLee Hoi-chang is a South Korean politician. A Catholic, he was born to an elite family in Seoheung, Hwanghae , but grew up in the south after his father, a public prosecutor, was appointed to a new post.Like his father, Lee studied law at Seoul National University and became a judge at the age of 25...
, Kim Young-sam's successor, in the election held on 18 December 1997, and was inaugurated as the fifteenth President of South Korea on 25 February 1998. This inauguration marked the first time in Korean history that the ruling party peacefully transferred power to a democratically elected opposition victor. The election was marred with controversy, as two candidates from the ruling party split the conservative vote (38.7% and 19.2% respectively), enabling Kim to win with a 40.3% of the popular vote. Kim's chief opponent, Lee Hoi Chang, was a former Supreme Court Justice and had graduated at the top of his class from
Seoul National UniversitySeoul National University , colloquially known in Korean as Seoul-dae , is a national research university located in Seoul, ranked 24th in the world in publications in an analysis of data from the Science Citation Index and 47th in the world and 7th in Asia by THES-QS World University Rankings...
School of Law. Lee was widely viewed as elitist and his candidacy was further damaged by charges that his sons dodged mandatory military service. Kim's education in contrast was limited to vocational high school, and many Koreans sympathized with the many trials and tribulations that Kim had endured previously.
The preceding presidents Park Chung Hee,
Chun Doo-hwanChun Doo-hwan is a retired former ROK Army general who served as President of South Korea from 1980 to 1988...
,
Roh Tae-wooRoh Tae-woo Roh Tae-woo Roh Tae-woo ....
, and
Kim Young-samKim Young-sam was the first civilian President of South Korea since a series of dictatorships beginning with Park Chung-hee. Kim Young-sam was inaugurated on 25 February 1993 and served a single 5-year term...
originated from the
GyeongsangGyeongsang was one of the eight provinces of Korea during the Joseon Dynasty. Gyeongsang was located in the southeast of Korea....
region, which became wealthier since 1945 partly due to the policies of the Park, Chun and Roh's regimes. Kim Dae-jung was the first president to serve out his full term who came from the
JeollaJeolla was one of the eight provinces of Korea during the Joseon Dynasty. Jeolla was located in the southwest of Korea. The provincial capital was Jeonju.-History:...
region in the southwest, an area that had been neglected and less developed, at least partly because of discriminatory policies of previous presidents. Kim's administration included more individuals from the Jeolla province, leading to charges of reverse discrimination. However, the actual numbers of the ministers and administrators of Kim Dae Jung's government from Jeolla region indicate that they were not over-represented.
Economic Achievements
Kim Dae-jung took office in the midst of the economic crisis that hit South Korea in the final year of Kim Young-sam's term. He vigorously pushed economic reform and restructuring recommended by the International Monetary Fund, in the process significantly altering the landscape of
South Korean economyThe economy of South Korea is a developed, largely free-market economy that is the fourth largest in Asia and 15th largest in the world. South Korea's transformation into a developed country between 1960 and 1980 was called the Miracle on the Han River by Koreans...
. After the economy shrank by 5.8 percent in 1998, it grew 10.2 percent in 1999. In effect, his policies were to make for a fairer market by holding the powerful chaebol (conglomerates) accountable, e.g., greater transparency in accounting practices. State subsidies to large corporations were dramatically cut or dropped.
North Korea policy
His policy of engagement with
North KoreaNorth Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea , is a state in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer area between North Korea and South Korea...
has been termed the
Sunshine PolicyThe Sunshine Policy was the South Korean foreign policy towards North Korea until Lee Myung-bak's election to presidency in 2008. The doctrine emphasizes peaceful cooperation, seeking short-term reconciliation as a prelude to eventual Korean reunification...
. He moved to begin detente with the totalitarian regime in North Korea, which culminated in a historic summit meeting in 2000 in Pyongyang with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. This began a now decade-old process of frustrating, but continuing direct contact with Pyongyang. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for these efforts. After the 2000 Summit, the historic event was tainted to a degree by revelations that at least several hundred million dollars had been paid to Pyongyang. The payment does not destroy the value of the dramatic breakthrough negotiation. The North Korean leader, however, never kept his promise to reciprocate by visiting South Korea. North Korea has not reduced the heavy presence of troops in the De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) and has continued to work on
developing nuclear weaponNorth Korea is claimed to have an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, and claims to possess nuclear weapons. The CIA asserts that North Korea also has a substantial arsenal of chemical weapons...
s, which it
testedThe 2006 North Korean nuclear test was the detonation of a nuclear device conducted on October 9, 2006 by North Korea.North Korea announced its intention to conduct a test on October 3, six days prior, and in doing so became the first nation to give warning of its first nuclear test...
in October 2006.
Relationship with former dictators
After Kim achieved the presidency and moved into the Blue House, there was understandable uncertainty and considerable speculation about how he would handle the office. He had been sentenced to death by Chun Doo Hwan. Chun and his successor Roe Tae Woo had been sentenced by Kim Dae Jung's predecessor President Kim Young Sam. Kim Dae Jung pardoned Chun.
Summary
During his presidency, he successfully shepherded South Korea's economic recovery, brought in a new era of economic transparency and fostered a greater role of South Korea in the world stage, including the
FIFA World CupThe FIFA World Cup, occasionally called the Football World Cup, but usually referred to simply as the World Cup, is an international football competition contested by the men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...
, jointly hosted by Korea and Japan in 2002. Kim completed his 5-year presidential term in 2003 and was succeeded by
Roh Moo-hyunRoh Moo-hyun was the 16th President of South Korea . Before entering politics, he was a human rights lawyer....
. A presidential library at
Yonsei UniversityYonsei University is a Christian private research university, located in Seoul, South Korea. Established in 1885, it is one of the oldest universities in South Korea and is widely regarded as one of the top three comprehensive universities in the country...
was built to preserve Kim's legacy, and there is a convention center named after him in the city of Gwangju, the Kim Dae-jung Convention Center.
Post-presidency
Kim actively called for restraint against the North Koreans for detonating a nuclear weapon and defended the continued
Sunshine PolicyThe Sunshine Policy was the South Korean foreign policy towards North Korea until Lee Myung-bak's election to presidency in 2008. The doctrine emphasizes peaceful cooperation, seeking short-term reconciliation as a prelude to eventual Korean reunification...
towards
PyongyangPyongyang is the capital of North Korea, located on the Taedong River. According to preliminary results from the 2008 population census, it has a population of 3,255,388.The city was split from the South P'yŏngan province in 1946...
to defuse the crisis. He also received an honorary doctorate at the University of Portland on 17 April 2008 where he delivered his speech, "Selamat Sejahtera, Muwid Muwid."
Kim's presidential legacy is largely positive. He is credited for forwarding democratic reforms and navigating Korea through the 1997-1998 financial crisis
Death
Kim died on 18 August 2009 at 13:43 KST, at
Severance HospitalThe Severance Hospital of the Yonsei University Health System is a hospital located in Sinchon-dong, Seodaemun-gu, South Korea. It has 3,700 beds, approximately 3,000,000 outpatients and 1,000,000 inpatients annually and is affiliated with Yonsei University College of Medicine...
of
Yonsei UniversityYonsei University is a Christian private research university, located in Seoul, South Korea. Established in 1885, it is one of the oldest universities in South Korea and is widely regarded as one of the top three comprehensive universities in the country...
in
SeoulSeoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest city of South Korea. With a population of over 10 million, it is one of the world's largest cities. The Seoul National Capital Area, which includes the major port city of Incheon and most of Gyeonggi-do, has 24.5 million...
. The cause of death was given as
multiple organ dysfunction syndromeMultiple organ dysfunction syndrome ', previously known as multiple organ failure , is altered organ function in an acutely ill patient requiring medical intervention to achieve homeostasis...
. An interfaith state funeral was held for former President Kim Dae-jung on 23 August 2009 in front of the
National Assembly BuildingThe National Assembly Building is the building that serves as the location of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea, the legislative branch of the South Korean national government. It is located at Yeouido-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul....
, with a procession leading to the
Seoul National CemeteryThe Seoul National Cemetery is located in Dongjak-dong, Dongjak-gu, Seoul, South Korea. When established by presidential decree of Syngman Rhee in 1956, it was the country's only national cemetery. An additional national cemetery was established in 1974 in Daejeon...
where he was interred according to Catholic traditions. Former President Kim was the second person in modern Korean history to be given a
State FuneralA state funeral is a public funeral ceremony, observing the strict rules of protocol, held to honor heads of state or other important people of national significance. State funerals usually include much pomp and ceremony as well as religious overtones and distinctive elements of military tradition...
after
Park Chung-heePark Chung-hee was a former ROK Army general and president of South Korea from 1961 to 1979. He has been criticized for his authoritarian way of ruling the country , but is also credited with the industrialization of the Republic of Korea through export-led growth...
.
See also
- Liberalism in South Korea
This article gives an overview of liberalism in South Korea. It is limited to liberal democratic parties with substantial support, mainly proven by having had a representation in parliament. The sign ⇒ means a reference to another party in that scheme...
- Kidnapping of Kim Dae-jung
- North-South presidential summit corruption allegations
- South Korean Presidential Election, 1997
The 15th South Korean Presidential Election took place on December 18, 1997.-Results:*Total electorate: 32,290,416*Turnout: 26,042,633 *Invalid ballots: 400,195...
External links