Asia-Pacific
Former S. Korean leader Kim Dae-jung dies
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-08-18 13:29
SEOUL: Former President Kim Dae-jung, who survived assassination attempts during his years as a dissident and won the Nobel Peace Prize for his reconciliation efforts with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), died Tuesday. He was 85.
Kim, who had been hospitalized with pneumonia since last month, died shortly after 1:40 pm (0400 GMT), said Park Chang-il, chief of Severance Hospital in Seoul. He said Kim suffered respiratory distress, a pulmonary embolism and multiple organ failure.
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 South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung addresses a news conference in Berlin in this March 10, 2000 file photo. Former president Kim has died, Yonhap reported August 18, 2009. [Agencies]
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South Korean leaders, from friends to former foes, had been paying their respects for days at the hospital to a man whose epic career spanned South Korea's political upheaval, from the decades of harsh authoritarian rule to its transformation into a full-fledged democracy.
As a pro-democracy opposition lawmaker, Kim built a reputation as a passionate champion of human rights and democracy who fought against South Korea's military dictatorships.
He survived several suspected assassination attempts, including a dramatic 1973 abduction at a Tokyo hotel, allegedly by South Korean agents.
And as president from 1998-2003, he was architect of the "Sunshine Policy" of reaching out to wartime rival the DPRK as a way to encourage reconciliation.
His efforts led to an unprecedented thaw in relations with the DPRK and culminated in a historic North-South summit -- the first on the divided peninsula -- and a jubilant meeting in Pyongyang with leader Kim Jong Il in 2000.
His successor, the late President Roh Moo-hyun, maintained the Sunshine Policy but Kim Dae-jung saw his work unravel with the election of conservative President Lee Myung-bak in 2007, who conditioned aid to the DPRK on the regime's commitment to nuclear disarmament.
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Over the past year, as international tensions rose over Pyongyang's continued nuclear defiance, Kim rallied up until the end for Seoul to find a way to engage the DPRK.
He said in January that Koreans on both sides of the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone must be mindful of their "painful and tragic" history and work together to establish peace and security on the Korean peninsula.
"The South and North have never been free from mutual fear and animosity over the past half-century -- not even for a single day," he told reporters. "When we cooperate, both Koreas will enjoy peace and economic prosperity."
