Kim Dae Jung
(b. 1924), president of South Korea and winner of the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize. Kim Dae Jung, a long-time opposition leader, was elected president of South Korea in December 1997. He was born on 6 January 1924 in South Cholla Province, where he attended school, eventually graduating from high school in 1943. During the Korean War (1950–1953), Kim was captured by North Korean troops and sentenced to death as a traitor because he worked for the Japanese. Kim managed to escape his captors, finding his way back to Seoul.
Kim entered politics in 1960 as an opposition member in the national assembly. Eventually, in 1971 Kim ran as the New Democratic Party's presidential candidate against sitting president Park Chung Hee (1917–1979). Kim lost to Park by a narrow margin, thereby setting the stage for his becoming a vociferous critic of the Park regime. Park considered Kim such a danger that he had him kidnapped in Japan by the Korean Central Intelligence Agency and brought back to Seoul to stand trial by a secret military court for treason. Under heavy diplomatic pressure, Park rescinded Kim's death sentence, which was later commuted to three years' imprisonment, and Kim was released from jail.
Kim Dae Jung at the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Brunei in November 2000. (AFP/CORBIS)Following the coup that brought Chun Doo Hwan (b. 1931) to power in 1979, Kim was again arrested, jailed, and sentenced to death. Kim's sentence was again commuted, and he was allowed to leave for the United States, where he was to receive medical treatment. Kim returned to South Korea in February 1985 and again became involved in Korean politics, first as an adviser to the Council for Promotion of Democracy and then as a member of the Reunification Democratic Party. Kim ran for the presidency in 1992, losing to Kim Young Sam. In 1997, he again stood as a candidate and, with support from Kim Jung Pil, leader of the opposition Democratic Republic Party, was elected president of South Korea.
Kim's election marked the first time that a peaceful transition of power took place in the South since the formation of the Republic of Korea. Kim's presidency was marked by a historic trip to P'yongyang, capital of North Korea, in June 2000 to open North-South dialogue on the possible reunification of Korea.
Further Reading
Kim Dae Jung. (1985) Mass-Participating Economy: A Democratic Alternative for Korea. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
——. (1987) Prison Writing. Trans. by Choi Sung-il and David Malone. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
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