South KoreaWho was Kim Dae-jung?
Kim Dae-jung was born in 1924 on an island off South Korea's southwestern coast. He entered politics in opposition to Syngman Rhee and became a leading critic of Park Chung Hee, winning over 46 per cent of the vote against him in the 1971 presidential election. Under military rule he was kidnapped by intelligence agents, imprisoned, sentenced to death and sent into exile. Elected president in December 1997, he took office in 1998 in the first transfer of power to the opposition in Korea's modern history. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 and died in 2009.
Political views
Opposed Park Chung Hee's 1969 bid for a third term and the 1972 Yushin constitution, which gave the president power for life.
Source: nobelprize.orgRejected the claim that western-style democracy did not suit Asia, arguing that Asian thought had long held that rulers must serve the people.
Source: nobelprize.orgMade the parallel development of democracy and market economics, supplemented by productive welfare, the basic mission of his government.
Source: nobelprize.orgTook office during the 1997 financial crisis and launched reforms and restructuring that pulled the country back from the brink of bankruptcy.
Source: nobelprize.orgProclaimed a sunshine policy toward North Korea that ruled out both unification through communism and absorption of the North, and held the first inter-Korean summit in 2000.
Source: nobelprize.orgInsisted that the US military presence on the Korean peninsula was indispensable to security, even after unification.
Source: nobelprize.orgUrged President George W. Bush to keep negotiating with North Korea, arguing that dialogue served global peace.
Source: latimes.com
Legacy
Admirers regard Kim as one of Asia's great democrats, crediting him with helping end military rule, leading the recovery from the 1997 financial crisis and opening a period of reconciliation with North Korea. Conservative critics derided the sunshine policy as a 'pay-back policy', and many South Koreans saw North Korea's nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009 as proof that conciliation had failed. His reputation was also damaged when it emerged that his aides had secretly arranged the transfer of $500 million to North Korea shortly before the 2000 summit, leading to charges that he had bought the meeting, and his youngest son was arrested for taking bribes.
In their words
Without democracy the market economy cannot blossom, and without market economics, economic competitiveness and growth cannot be achieved.