Kim Dae-jung

Kim Dae-jung (6 January 1924 – 18 August 2009) was a South Korean politician and activist who served as the 8th (15th election) president of South Korea from 1998 to 2003.

Kim entered politics as a member of the new wing of the Democratic Party.

Kim Dae-Jung was born on 6 January 1924, but he later edited his birth date to 3 December 1925 to avoid conscription under Japanese colonial rule.

Kim was the second of seven children.

His father, Kim Un-sik, was a farmer.

Kim graduated from Mokpo Commercial Middle School in 1944, and worked as a clerk at a Japanese-managed shipping company.

In 1945, Kim married his first wife Cha Yong-ae, going on to have two sons.

After the Japanese defeat in World War II and the liberation of Korea, he was elected as the chairman of the company's management committee.

In 1946, as newly liberated Korea debated how to govern themselves for the first time in 40 years, he joined a nationalist organization with both pro-Communist and anti-Communist members but left after disagreements with the pro-communists.

However, this left him open to red-baiting from his political opponents in his future political career.

In 1947, he bought a ship and started his own shipping company and in 1948, Kim became the publisher of a Mokpo daily newspaper.

As the Korean War started in June 1950, Kim was on a business trip in Seoul.

As he returned to Mokpo on foot, he was captured by North Korean communists and was sentenced to be shot, though he managed to escape.

Kim disposed his business, and entered politics in earnest from Mokpo in 1954 during the administration of Korea's first president, Syngman Rhee.

From 1954 to 1960, he was defeated four times in elections.

In 1956, he became the official party spokesman for the opposition Democratic Party led by former prime minister Chang Myon.

Cha Yong-ae, Kim's wife, died unexpectedly in 1959, and Kim subsequently converted to Catholicism.

He was an opposition politician who carried out a democratization movement against military dictatorship from the Third Republic in the 1960s to the Fifth Republic in the 1980s.

Although he was elected as a representative in a by-election for the National Assembly on 14 May 1961, Park Chung Hee seized power two days later in the May 16 coup, and later assumed dictatorial powers, voiding the elections.

He was briefly arrested, before having his rights restored.

In 1962, Kim married Lee Hee-ho, a Christian activist, and had another son.

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.

After completing a master's course in economics at Kyung Hee University in 1970, he ran as opposition candidate for the country's presidential election in 1971, against President Park Chung Hee.

President Park had removed term limits and was seeking to run for a third term.

A very talented orator, Kim could command unwavering loyalty among his supporters.

Kim won the nomination of the opposition party over Kim Young-sam, another pro-democracy politician.

He continued to lose in presidential elections until the 7th presidential election in 1971, the 13th presidential election in 1987, and the 14th presidential election in 1992.

Still, in the 15th presidential election in 1997, he defeated Grand National Party candidate Lee Hoi-chang through an alliance with Kim Jong-pil and DJP.

Kim was the first opposition candidate to win the presidency.

At the time of his inauguration in 1998, he was 74 years old, making him the oldest president in history.

He promoted the Sunshine Policy, a policy of appeasement toward North Korea, and held the first-ever inter-Korean summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in June 2000.

He was a 2000 Nobel Peace Prize recipient for his work for democracy and human rights in South Korea and in East Asia in general, and for peace and reconciliation with North Korea and Japan in December 2000.

He is also the only Korean to have won the Nobel Prize to date.

He was sometimes referred to as "the Nelson Mandela of Asia".

After completing his term in 2003, he died at the age of 85 on 18 August 2009 due to multiple organ failure and respiratory distress syndrome caused by pneumonia.

Kim was a 12th generation descendant of Kim Ik-soo (김익수;金益壽) who served as Second Minister of the Board of War (병조참판;兵曹參判) and the civil minister (문신;文臣) who involved at the construction of Gwansanggam during Joseon period.

Ik-soo is the grandson of Kim Young-jeong (김영정;金永貞) of Gimhae Kim clan, this makes him a distant relative of Kim Jong-pil.

Kim was born on the island of Hauido, Sinan County, Zenranan-dō, Korea, Empire of Japan (now South Jeolla Province, South Korea).

Kim's family had moved to the nearby port city of Mokpo so that he could finish high school.

He had to change his name to Toyota Taichū (豊田大中) because of the passing of the sōshi-kaimei ordinance.