15th presidential election 8th president of south korea passes away at 85 KIM DAE JUNG (kim DJ) 1998-2003 president

Former President Kim Dae-jung, a towering figure in modern Korean politics for his distinctive role in the promotion of democracy, inter-Korean reconciliation and human rights, passed away at a Seoul hospital, Tuesday. He was 85.

Kim, who had been hospitalized with pneumonia and other complications since last month, died around 1:43 p.m., said Lee Sung-man, a spokesman for the Yonsei Severance Hospital.

He is survived by his wife, former first lady Lee Hee-ho, and three sons, Hong-up, Hong-il and Hong-gul.

The late Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who served as president from 1998 to 2003, had been undergoing intensive treatment since July 13 for pneumonia and received surgery on his bronchial tubes in late July as part of procedures to facilitate his breathing.

Numerous wellwishers at home and abroad, including U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and his former political foes, had been visiting the hospital for days to pay tribute to the statesman known for his brave opposition to authoritarian rule in the 1970s and 1980s.

Kim championed human rights and democracy. Since 1963, he was elected to the National Assembly four times during an epic political career that spanned 46 years.

Kim survived intense oppression, marked by assassination attempts and a death sentence, under the authoritarian governments of Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan during his years as a dissident leader before being elected president in 1997.

He was the first Korean head of state to hold a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, a culmination of his life-long dedication to inter-Korean reconciliation, displayed in his signature Sunshine Policy of engaging communist North Korea.

After the 2000 inter-Korean summit, he won the Nobel Peace Prize later that year in recognition of his lifelong fight for democracy and reconciliation efforts between the two Koreas.

Born in 1924 to a poor farming family in a remote island off the West Coast, he owned a shipping company and ran a newspaper in Mokpo, South Jeolla Province.

He began his political career in 1963 when he was elected to the sixth-term National Assembly and became spokesperson of the Democratic Party.

After two failed attempts, Kim was first elected to the Assembly in 1961, but his election was invalidated three days later when Gen. Park, who remained in office until his 1979 assassination, seized power through a military coup on May 16 and dissolved parliament.

Kim suffered intense oppression from the military regimes of Park and his successor Chun and faced several death threats.

In August 1973, South Korean agents kidnapped Kim from a Tokyo hotel in an assassination attempt. He was spared after intervention from the United States and Japan.

In 1980, he was arrested by the Martial Law Command led by then-Major General Chun on fabricated charges of treason for his alleged role in the Gwangju Pro-Democracy Movement and sentenced to death.

Under international pressure, the sentence was commuted to imprisonment and then reduced to a 20-year prison term. In 1982, the sentence was suspended, after which Kim left for the United States and continued his pro-democracy activities.

He ran for president four times during his career. His 1971 bid was defeated by Park. He then had unsuccessful campaigns in 1987 and 1992.

Finally, in 1997, he defeated Lee Hoi-chang, marking Korea's first power transfer from a ruling to an opposition party.

His towering achievements as president were his leadership to save the country from a financial crisis in the late 1990s and his efforts to reconcile the two Koreas, which are still technically at war.

In 2003, it was revealed that the inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang might have in part been the result of a payment of $500 million to the North, leading to the prosecution of his close aides.


kabkor:[b]

may his soul rest in peace...

galing mo talga kabayan!tnx sa walang pagod na pag upload.

wow...ang galing ha!thank you for sharing this info.God Bless.