Kim Dae-jung

Kim Dae-jung (Korean: 김대중; pronounced [kim.dɛ.dʑuŋ]; 8 January 1924 – 18 August 2009) was a South Korean politician, activist and statesman who served as the eighth president of South Korea from 1998 to 2003.

Originally an entrepreneur, Kim abandoned business and entered politics after the Korean War, becoming a member of the new wing of the Democratic Party. He was an opposition politician who carried out a democratization movement against the military dictatorship from the Third Republic in the 1960s to the Fifth Republic in the 1980s. He escaped death five times, spent six years in prison and ten years under house arrest and in exile. He was repeatedly imprisoned, exiled, almost murdered in a car accident, and sentenced to death by the military and political authorities He ran unsuccessfully in presidential elections in 1971, 1987, and 1992. In the country's 15th presidential election in 1997, he defeated Grand National Party candidate Lee Hoi-chang through an alliance with Kim Jong-pil and Democratic Liberal Party. 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 Korean history.

During his tenure, Kim Dae-jung worked to revive the South Korean economy, which had been hit by the 1997 Asian financial crisis, and reformed the South Korean economic system, enabling South Korea to successfully complete the privatization of enterprises and the transformation of its industrial structure. He promoted the Sunshine Policy, a policy of détente toward North Korea, and held the first-ever inter-Korean summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in June 2000. In addition, he effectively maintained peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula by coordinating the development of relations with the United States, Japan, China and Russia, and enhanced South Korea's international status and prestige. 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.^[1] He was the first South Korean to be awarded a Nobel Prize and one of only two, the second being awarded to Han Kang in 2024 for Literature.^[2] He was sometimes referred to as "the Nelson Mandela of Asia".^[3] 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 Dae-jung was born on 8 January 1924,^[4][5] but his father later changed his registered birth date to 3 December 1925 in order to exempt him from conscription during Japanese colonial rule. Kim was born on the island of Hauido, Sinan County, Zenranan Province, Korea, Empire of Japan (now South Jeolla Province, South Korea). Hauido is a small island 34 kilometers from Mokpo. The island's inhabitants mainly made a living by farming. During the annexation of Korea by Japan, the entire island was sold to the Japanese, and all the farmers on the island became tenant farmers of the Japanese, which triggered the "Hauido Farmers Movement". The landlords of Hauido changed nine times on paper. When Kim Dae-jung was young, Hauido was sold to a Japanese man named Tokuda Hiroshichi, and became Tokuda Farm. Influenced by his family, Kim Dae-jung was interested in politics from a young age. When he was eight or nine years old, Kim Dae-jung often read political reports in the newspaper.^{[6]: 1-2 [7]: 2}

Kim was the second of seven children. His father, Kim Un-sik, was a farmer and a village official who was resistant to the Japanese rule.^[8] He often said, "Our Korea was originally an independent country, but it was only because of the Japanese invasion that it became like this", and he once led an anti-rent movement in the village^{[6]: 4 [9]: 21}. At the same time, Kim Un-sik was very open-minded and believed that the country needed to open its doors to development.^[9]: 21-22 The village official's family received the newspaper Maeil sinbo sent by the government every day.^{[7]: 2 [10]} 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 was involved in 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.

When Kim Dae-jung was seven years old and of school age, there was no formal primary school on Ha-i Island. His father sent him to a private school on the island. The following year, after a formal four-year primary school was built on the island, he was directly enrolled in the second grade of primary school.^[9]: 24-25 When Kim Dae-jung was in the fourth grade of primary school, in order to enable him to continue his schooling, his family sold their ancestral property and moved to Mokpo City. Kim Dae-jung transferred to the six-year Mokpo Public First Ordinary School (now Mokpo Bukgyo Primary School). When he was in the fifth grade of Mokpo Primary School, Korean language was banned, the school's previous Korean language courses were canceled, and even the use of Korean language to communicate was prohibited on campus, otherwise he would be punished.^{[6]: 5-10 [9]: 27}

In 1939, Kim Dae-jung graduated from Mokpo Elementary School with the highest score and was admitted to the five-year Japanese-style Mokpo Commercial School (now Mokpo Commercial High School)^[11] with the highest score.^{[7]: 5 [9]: 28} Among the new students, Japanese students and Korean students each accounted for half. During this period, Kim Dae-jung showed a talent for debate and public speaking. This talent was fully utilized after he entered politics. Because Kim Dae-jung was among the top students, he was elected as the class monitor. However, he was later dismissed from his position as class monitor because he wrote an article condemning Japanese colonial rule.^[12]: 23 When he was in the second year, the school required Korean students to change their names per the sōshi-kaimei ordinance, forcing him to change his name to Toyota Taichū (豊田大中). This was a blow to Kim Dae-jung. Once, Kim Dae-jung had a quarrel with Japanese students who were provoking trouble, which eventually turned into a brawl between Korean and Japanese students. Kim Dae-jung was therefore regarded as a "bad element" by the Japanese. When he was in the third grade, Kim Dae-jung originally wanted to take the college entrance examination after graduation, so he transferred to the college entrance examination preparation class. However, in 1943, due to the Japanese military's repeated defeats in the Pacific War, Kim Dae-jung's grade was arranged to graduate a year early. Kim Dae-jung's dream of going to university was also shattered by the war.^{[6]: 28-31 [9]: 31 [7]: 6}

When Kim Dae-jung graduated from Mokpo Commercial School, the Japanese government began to conscript soldiers in large numbers as the war situation became unfavorable to Japan. To help him avoid conscription, Kim Dae-jung's father changed his birth date to December 3, 1925. Due to the shortage of manpower at the time, which was in the later stages of the war, Kim Dae-jung easily found a job at a Japanese shipping company in Mokpo.^[6]: 16 His Japanese boss also acted as a guarantor for him, allowing him to escape police surveillance. On April 9, 1945, Kim Dae-jung married Cha Yong-ae, the younger sister of a classmate from Mokpo Commercial School. After World War II, Kim Dae-jung was elected as the chairman of the operating committee of the former Japanese shipping company and took over the company for a period of time. Later, the US military government took back the management rights of the company, but Kim Dae-jung, as a representative of the employees, went to Seoul to negotiate and regain the management rights. His prestige in the business world also rose accordingly. At that time, the staff of Daeyang Shipbuilding Industry, the largest shipyard in Mokpo, also invited him to manage the company. So he managed the shipyard for a period of time. Shortly after the birth of Hong-il, the eldest son of Kim Dae- jung and Cha Yong-ae, Kim Dae-jung established his own Mokpo Shipping Company to operate shipping business between Mokpo, Busan, Gunsan and Incheon. The couple also moved into a two-story house in Changnak-dong While operating the shipping business, he also joined a newspaper originally run by Japanese people, the Mokpo Daily. He quickly went from being a trainee editor and reporter to a senior editor and reporter. In 1948, due to his outstanding performance, Kim Dae-jung, who was only 25 years old, became the president of the Mokpo Daily.^[13]

On June 25, 1950, the Korean War broke out. At the time, Kim Dae-jung was on a business trip in Seoul. On the 28th, Kim Dae-jung woke up to find that the Korean People's Army had occupied Seoul. The chaos of the war forced Kim Dae-jung to return to his hometown as soon as possible. The distance from Seoul to Mokpo was about 400 kilometers. Amidst the roar of fighter planes, Kim Dae-jung risked his life to escape back to Mokpo over 20 days, finally seeing his mother waiting anxiously at the door.^[9]: 36 However, before Kim Dae-jung arrived in Mokpo, it had already been occupied by the Korean People's Army.^[7]: 7 Kim Dae-jung's house was the largest in the vicinity at the time. When Kim Dae-jung returned, all his property had been confiscated. Kim Dae-jung's wife was about to give birth, and the whole family hid in an air-raid shelter. Kim Dae-jung's second son, Hong-eop, was born in the air-raid shelter.^{[note 1]} Three days after returning to Mokpo, Kim Dae-jung was arrested as a "capitalist." His brother and father- in-law were also arrested.^{[6]: 18-22 [9]: 42} Kim Dae-jung was imprisoned for two months and was originally to be executed.^[7]: 9 However, he was spared death because the United Nations Forces landed in Incheon and the Korean People's Army stationed in Mokpo hastily withdrew north.^{[note 2]} His brother and father-in-law also miraculously escaped death. His other family members were also safe and sound under the care of the employees of Kim Dae-jung's company.^{[6]: 25-32 [9]: 42-51 [14]}

Kim Dae-jung's company originally owned three ships. One ship was requisitioned by the authorities to transport military equipment, and another was lost in the war. Kim Dae-jung used the remaining ship to start a new business. The Mokpo Daily News was originally the largest local newspaper operated by the Japanese during the Japanese occupation. The Korean War plunged the newspaper into a severe economic crisis. At the invitation of the newspaper's employees, Kim Dae-jung acquired the newspaper in October 1950. On January 4, 1951, the Korean People's Army reoccupied Seoul. The war situation worsened again for the South. South Korea temporarily moved its government to Busan, which became the wartime capital. Kim Dae-jung also moved his family to Busan to develop his shipping business. He established Heungguk Shipping Co., Ltd. in Busan. In addition to the company's original two ships, Kim Dae-jung took out loans to buy three second-hand ships and leased five more, operating a total of ten ships. He monopolized the transportation business of grain, fertilizer, and pesticides for the Financial Cooperation Federation at the time. Before he was even 30 years old, Kim Dae-jung had already become a well-known entrepreneur. However, the infighting among his own people during the Korean War and the chaos under the rule of Syngman Rhee's government also strengthened his resolve to enter politics.^{[6]: 32-37 [9]: 53-54}

In 1954, Kim Dae-jung abandoned his thriving shipping business and began a bumpy political career. In the same year, Kim Dae-jung moved his family from Busan back to Mokpo and participated in the third National Assembly election in Mokpo. The labor union had a great influence on the Mokpo election. Because Kim Dae-jung understood workers and was enthusiastic about improving the working conditions of workers, he received the full support and recommendation of the Mokpo Labor Union. The labor union was an organization of the ruling Liberal Party. They put forward a condition that Kim Dae-jung would not participate in the opposition Democratic National Party. Kim Dae-jung agreed to this demand. Because Kim Dae-jung opposed the dictatorship of Syngman Rhee, he was also unwilling to participate in the ruling Liberal Party. In the end, Kim Dae-jung participated in the election as an independent. With the support of the labor union, Kim Dae-jung was originally sure to win. But later the ruling Liberal Party arrested all the cadres of the labor union on the grounds that they, as state cadres, did not support the ruling Liberal Party candidate but supported the independent candidate. Kim Dae-jung's first election in politics was therefore unsuccessful.^{[6]: 38-39 [9]: 55-57}

On September 25, 1956, Kim Dae-jung, persuaded by Jang Myon, formally joined the opposition Democratic Party. In the spring of 1958, Kim Dae-jung ran for the fourth National Assembly election in Inje County. Inje County was a newly established constituency after the Korean War, with 80% of its voters being military personnel. Due to severe corruption within the military at the time, the soldiers strongly supported the opposition party and hoped for a new regime to take control of the military. However, Kim Dae-jung's candidacy was heavily obstructed by the ruling Liberal Party, and his candidate registration was ultimately deemed invalid. Kim Dae-jung then filed a lawsuit for "obstruction of candidate registration." In March 1959, the court ruled in favor of Kim Dae-jung, and his election as a ruling party candidate for National Assembly was disqualified. In June of the same year, Kim Dae-jung participated in a by-election. To prevent Kim Dae-jung's election, the ruling party accused him of being a " communist " and of election fraud. Kim Dae-jung lost his second attempt to run for parliament. To raise campaign funds, Kim Dae-jung nearly exhausted his family's wealth and sold his house before participating in the 5th National Assembly election in 1960, leaving him in dire straits. His first wife, Cha Yong-ae, ran a hair salon to make ends meet. Due to overwork, Cha Yong-ae died of heart disease on May 27, 1960.^{[6]: 42-50 [9]: 58-60}

March 15, 1960 was the fourth presidential election in South Korea. Kim Dae-jung campaigned for the opposition Democratic Party candidate. The crumbling Syngman Rhee regime, in order to seek re-election, engaged in large-scale election fraud, which triggered a large-scale mass demonstration. Kim Dae-jung also represented the Democratic Party in the protest. On April 26, Syngman Rhee announced his resignation under pressure. In July of the same year, Kim Dae-jung once again participated in the fifth National Assembly election in Inje County. However, this election was the first absentee election in history, and the soldiers who supported Kim Dae-jung could not participate in the election, resulting in Kim Dae-jung's defeat again. However, in this election, his talent was discovered by Prime Minister Jang Myon. Kim Dae-jung was promoted to the position of spokesperson for the Democratic Party. Even more fortunately, the Liberal Party candidate who defeated Kim Dae-jung was stripped of his parliamentary qualification for dereliction of duty and suspected illegal election. In the subsequent Inje County by-election, Kim Dae-jung was finally elected as a member of parliament on May 14, 1961, and received his certificate of election on the same day. On May 16, Army Major General Park Chung-hee launched the " May 16 Coup ". The National Assembly of South Korea was dissolved the day after Kim Dae-jung was elected. Kim Dae-jung, who had not yet taken the oath, was also stripped of his parliamentary seat. In order to win over the people, the military government purged the Democratic Party under the banner of eliminating corruption. As the spokesperson of the Democratic Party, Kim Dae-jung was arrested on suspicion of corruption and "harboring communism". Without evidence, detention warrant and arrest warrant, Kim Dae-jung was detained for three months before being released. After being released from prison, Kim Dae-jung moved to Seoul with his two sons and lived with his mother and his sister who was studying at Ewha Womans University. Kim Dae-jung’s sister had congenital heart valve disease. But at this time, Kim Dae-jung was unemployed and poor. He could only helplessly watch his sister slowly die. In the autumn of 1961, when Kim Dae-jung was at his poorest, he ran into Lee Hee-ho, an old friend he had met ten years earlier in Busan. The two later married on May 10, 1962, and had a son named Hong-jae.^{[12]: 85-103 [9]: 68-72}

On February 27, 1963, the Park Chung-hee military government lifted the ban on the "Political Activity Purification Law" and began to establish the Democratic Republican Party in preparation for the fifth presidential election. Kim Dae-jung, who had been suppressed for two years, also began to participate in the reconstruction of the Democratic Party and became active in the political arena as the spokesperson of the Democratic Party.^{[12]: 108-109} In November 1963, Kim Dae-jung participated in the sixth National Assembly election in Mokpo. Having experienced the failure and setbacks of the previous five elections, Kim Dae-jung was elected with an absolute advantage of 22,513 votes and became a member of the National Assembly. Kim Dae-jung cherished his hard-won position as a member of the National Assembly. In order to prepare his speech for the National Assembly, he spent his days in the National Assembly Library looking for information. In the six months following the opening of the first plenary session of the National Assembly, Kim Dae-jung became the member of the National Assembly who spoke the most. His speeches were based on examples and data and often put the ruling party in a difficult position.^{[6]: 88 [12]: 114-117 [9]: 80-85}

In 1964, the Park Chung-hee government began negotiations to normalize diplomatic relations with Japan, sparking large-scale protests. Kim Dae-jung shared similar views with the ruling party on this issue, supporting normalization, which drew criticism from the opposition democratic camp and the public, earning him the label of "lackey of the ruling party." Even his father wrote a letter criticizing him. Unlike the ruling party, Kim Dae-jung believed that the $300 million in compensation demanded by the Park Chung -hee government was insignificant, and that it would be better to refuse it entirely, demanding a sincere apology from Japan. On June 3, 1965, the protests against normalizing relations with Japan reached their peak. Park Chung-hee was even prepared to step down. Japan and South Korea were both allies of the United States. The United States, which had initially disliked Park Chung-hee, began to support him due to the issue of normalizing relations between South Korea and Japan. U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, Berg, and Commander of the UN Forces Korea, Hywood, flew over the protesters in a helicopter and landed at the Blue House. That evening, Park Chung-hee issued a martial law order, and the demonstrations were suppressed. On June 22, South Korea and Japan signed the Treaty on Basic Relations between the two countries, formally establishing diplomatic relations.^{[6]: 88-92 [12]: 117-122 [9]: 86-91 [15]: 81-83}

In 1965, the United States began to ask South Korea to send troops to Vietnam. South Korean political parties were divided again. Kim Dae-jung also opposed sending troops to Vietnam. The opposition's position deepened the gap with the United States, while the relationship between the Park Chung-hee government and the United States became closer. Shortly after sending troops to Vietnam, Park Chung-hee was invited by US President Johnson to visit the United States and received the highest honors from the leaders of brother countries. However, history proved that South Korea did benefit from sending troops to Vietnam. With the help of US and Japanese aid and the prosperity of the military industry, South Korea's annual economic growth rate exceeded 10%. 1965-1969 also became the peak period of Park Chung-hee's rule. On February 21, 1966, Kim Dae-jung visited the United States for the first time at the invitation of the US State Department, along with two other members of Congress. In September of the same year, Kim Dae-jung and other moderate members of Congress went to Vietnam to inspect the South Korean military.^{[6]: 93-95 [12]: 123 [9]: 92}

In 1965, the Democratic Party, the People's Justice Party, the Liberal Democratic Party, the Nationalist Party, and the People's Party merged into a single opposition People's Party, and Kim Dae-jung was elected as its spokesperson and head of the propaganda bureau. In August 1966, Kim Dae-jung became a core leader of the People's Party, serving as the chairman of the party's policy committee and a member of the Central Executive Bureau. On February 7, 1967, the two major opposition parties, the People's Party and the Shinhan Party, merged into the New People's Party, and Kim Dae-jung was elected as a member of the Central Executive Bureau of the New People's Party and the spokesperson of the New People's Party.^{[6]: 96 [12]: 123-124} In June 1967, Kim Dae-jung once again participated in the election for the seventh National Assembly in his hometown of Mokpo. As Kim Dae-jung's influence in politics expanded, Park Chung-hee had already regarded him as a thorn in his side. On the eve of the election, Park Chung-hee and the ruling party made a decision that they would rather have the ruling party candidate lose 20 places in other regions than let Kim Dae-jung be elected. Park Chung-hee also personally came to Mokpo twice to campaign for the ruling party candidate. However, Kim Dae-jung was ultimately elected by a narrow margin of 2,000 votes. However, the ruling party won two-thirds of the seats in the National Assembly for the " third election to amend the constitution".^{[6]: 97-105 [9]: 97-106}

On October 17, 1969, after the opposition party tried its best to stop it but failed, Park Chung-hee's " three-election constitutional reform " plan was passed by the National Assembly. This cleared the legal obstacles for Park Chung-hee to serve as president for the third time. Park Chung-hee's success dealt a heavy blow to South Korean democracy.^[12]: 133 The leadership of the New Democratic Party at that time was already very old. The aging and conservative ideas, coupled with the failure to resist Park Chung-hee's "three-election constitutional reform", made the atmosphere within the party very depressed. On November 8, 1969, Kim Young-sam, the head of the General Affairs Department of the New Democratic Party, proposed the "40-year-old generation standard-bearer theory", advocating the transfer of political dominance to young politicians in their 40s, which was supported by party members Kim Young-sam, Kim Dae-jung and Lee Cheol-seung, three young leaders in their 40s, became competitors for the New Democratic Party's presidential candidate in 1971. On September 29, 1970, Kim Dae-jung was finally elected as the New Democratic Party's presidential candidate after two rounds of voting.^{[6]: 113-116 [9]: 107-110}

Kim promised a welfare-oriented "mass economy" and also advocated easing tensions with North Korea, while predicting correctly that if Park was reelected, he would become a "generalissimo".^[16] Kim Dae-jung believed that in order to win the presidential election, the opposition party needed to reshape its image and come up with a complete set of governance plans. In October 1970, Kim Dae-jung, as the presidential candidate of the New Democratic Party, held a press conference in Seoul. At the conference, Kim Dae-jung announced a complete set of governance plans, including the unification of North and South Korea, the abolition of the " local reserve army system " which the people complained about, and the economic reform plan of establishing a labor-management co-management committee, which had a significant impact on Korean society. Kim Dae-jung's economic reform plan later became part of his "mass participation economy".^{[6]: 117-123 [12]} In 1985, Harvard University published Kim Dae-jung's "Mass Participation Economy". In February 1971, Kim Dae-jung and his wife Lee Hee-ho visited Japan and the United States, aiming to promote the New Democratic Party's policies to the two countries and seek support and establish cooperative relations. During his stay in the United States, Kim Dae-jung visited key officials of the U.S. State Department and members of Congress such as Edward Kennedy. Lee Hee-ho also visited First Lady Pat Nixon at the White House and took a photo with her. To counter Kim Dae-jung's influence, the Park Chung-hee regime resorted to any means necessary. During Kim Dae-jung's visit to the United States, his residence was bombed. The authorities arrested more than 50 people on the grounds of "insider involvement." Kim Dae-jung's nephew, a second-year middle school student, was subjected to waterboarding and forced to give false testimony, and was made a scapegoat, accused of being the bomber. A few days later, a fire mysteriously broke out in the house of election committee chairman Jung Il-hyung in the early morning. The authorities announced that the fire was caused by a cat bringing fire from the heated floor. This absurd incident became a topic of discussion overseas and was ranked among the top ten news stories in South Korea that year. To obstruct Kim Dae-jung's election, the Park Chung-hee military government falsely accused Kim Dae-jung of being a "communist-friendly" element and incited regional conflicts. Because the opposition party leader and the presidential candidate were not the same person, and due to the infighting among the compromise faction within the party, Kim Dae-jung was essentially fighting alone. In addition, the authorities also arrested and persecuted business people who sponsored Kim Dae-jung's campaign.^{[6]: 124-129 [9]: 115-119 [15]: 102-105}

In April 1971, Kim Dae-jung ran for president for the first time as the opposition party's presidential candidate, challenging President Park Chung-hee. During the three months of the election, he traveled to various places every day, averaging 400-800 kilometers a day, and was called "Iron Man" by the public.^[9]: 120 The ruling Democratic Republican Party grassroots tried their best to obstruct Kim Dae-jung's election activities. However, Kim Dae-jung was still welcomed by the local people wherever he went. In Daegu, Park Chung-hee's hometown, 200,000 people spontaneously came to listen to Kim Dae-jung's speech. In Busan, the number of people who listened to his speech reached 500,000. When Kim Dae-jung gave a speech at Jangchungdam Park in Seoul, the number of listeners reached an unprecedented 1 million. When Park Chung-hee gave a speech at Jangchungdam Park, the number of listeners was only one-third of that of Kim Dae-jung.^[7]: 93 In addition to obstructing Kim Dae-jung's election activities, the ruling Republican Party also took various illegal and fraudulent actions in the election to ensure that Park Chung-hee was elected. Even the votes cast by Kim Dae-jung and his wife were declared invalid by the authorities.^[9]: 125 On April 28, the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun published a report entitled "Invalid and Illegal". showed that Kim Dae-jung won 44.4% of the vote, losing to Park Chung-hee, who sought re-election through large-scale fraud.^[17] At the time, some commentators believed that "if there had been a fair election body to supervise and the votes had been counted correctly, Kim Dae-jung would have been elected president".^[18]

One month after the presidential election was the election for the eighth National Assembly. Kim Dae-jung used his popularity among the people to lobby for the New People's Party candidates in various places. Kim Dae-jung's rise made Park Chung-hee feel threatened.^[17] Kim Dae-jung was subsequently threatened with death several times. On May 25, 1971, on the highway from Mokpo to Gwangju, Kim Dae-jung was involved in a "car accident" deliberately caused by Park Chung-hee, and three supporters traveling with him died on the spot. Although Kim Dae-jung survived, his hip joint was severely injured, leaving him with a lifelong disability and he could only walk with a limp.^[14][17] On May 27, 1971, the results of the vote for the eighth National Assembly were announced. The ruling Democratic Republican Party won 113 seats, and the New People's Party won 89 seats, far exceeding the legally required number of 65 votes (one-third) to resist the amendment of the constitution. Kim Dae-jung was also elected as a member of the eighth National Assembly. The unexpected victory of the New People's Party dealt a heavy blow to Park Chung-hee's dictatorship.^[12]: 161

Due to the fatigue of the presidential and parliamentary campaigns and the worsening of his injuries after the car accident, Kim Dae-jung began to be bedridden. The Park Chung-hee regime began to monitor Kim Dae-jung 24 hours a day, and the telephone in Kim Dae-jung's home was also tapped. The houses around Kim Dae-jung's home were also rented by the authorities for surveillance. The name "Kim Dae-jung" began to disappear from newspapers, television and radio. On October 17, 1972, while Kim Dae-jung was receiving treatment for a hip injury in Japan, Park Chung-hee launched the October Restoration military coup.^[6]: 148 Ten days later, Park Chung-hee promulgated the "Restoration Constitution", changing the direct election of the president to an indirect election by the " Unification National Assembly ", and abolishing the provisions on limiting the president's re-election. On December 23 of the same year, Park Chung-hee was elected as the eighth president of South Korea as the only presidential candidate. After careful consideration, Kim Dae-jung decided to apply for political asylum in Tokyo to seek intervention from the Japanese and American governments. On October 18, Kim Dae-jung invited journalists from various countries to a press conference in Tokyo and wrote articles in several Japanese newspapers and media outlets to expose the dictatorial atrocities of Park Chung-hee's "October Restoration".^{[12]: 170-175 [9]: 133-135 [6]: 160-163}

In late 1972, Kim Dae-jung flew from Japan to the United States to lobby American politicians to put pressure on the situation in South Korea. Through introductions from two Harvard University professors, Kim met with several prominent American political figures, including Democratic Party Secretary General Mike Manswell, who later became the U.S. Ambassador to Japan. He also gave speeches at several American universities, including Columbia University, Missouri State University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Washington, exposing the truth about the Yushin coup and calling on the United States to support South Korea's democratic struggle against Park Chung-hee's dictatorship. Reportedly, these universities received protest calls from the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, demanding that they not provide venues for Kim. On January 5, 1973, Kim returned to Japan from the United States. As in the United States, Kim maintained extensive contact with members of both ruling and opposition parties in Japan, including Kakuei Tanaka, Takeo Fukuda, and Tomisaburo Hashimoto. During his exile in Japan, Kim published the book "Dictatorship and My Struggle." On March 6, 1973, he came to the United States for the second time and established a political organization with Korean expatriates in the United States to develop democracy, oppose Park Chung-hee's dictatorship, and promote national reunification, called the "National Conference for the Restoration of Democracy and Promotion of Unification of Korea" (abbreviated as "Korean Unification Association").^{[6]: 164-171 [12]: 170-176 [9]: 138-141}

On July 10 of the same year, Kim Dae-jung returned to Japan in order to establish the "Korean Democratic Unification Japan Headquarters". Kim Dae-jung’s activities overseas angered Park Chung-hee. On August 8, 1973, Kim Dae -jung met with Yang Yi-tong, the president of the Democratic Party of Unification, who came to Japan from South Korea for medical treatment, at the Grand Palace Hotel in Tokyo. Since Yang Yi-tong and Kim Dae-jung were close friends, Yang Yi-tong was followed by South Korean agents on this trip. When Kim Dae-jung came out of Yang Yi-tong’s room, he was kidnapped by five or six unidentified men in black sent by the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA). After being drugged, Kim Dae-jung was tied up and taken to the sea. He was almost drowned and was eventually kidnapped back to Seoul. Later, with the help of the US Central Intelligence Agency, Kim Dae-jung was released, but was placed under house arrest at home. During this period, he was designated a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International.^[19] Kim reflected on these events during his 2000 Nobel Peace Prize lecture:

I have lived, and continue to live, in the belief that God is always with me. I know this from experience. In August of 1973, while exiled in Japan, I was kidnapped from my hotel room in Tokyo by intelligence agents of the then military government of South Korea. The news of the incident startled the world. The agents took me to their boat at anchor along the seashore. They tied me up, blinded me, and stuffed my mouth. Just when they were about to throw me overboard, Jesus Christ appeared before me with such clarity. I clung to him and begged him to save me. At that very moment, an airplane was sent down from Heavens by the almighty God Himself to rescue me from the moment of death.

Philip Habib, the US ambassador in Seoul, had interceded for him with the South Korean government; the "airplane" referred to was a patrol plane from the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force which was tracking the kidnappers.^[21]: 16 In October 2007, the National Intelligence Service, successor to the KCIA, admitted that the KCIA carried out the plot. The NIS expressed its regret and had planned to kill and dump Kim into the sea. While the NIS panel said President Park "at least gave a passive approval", the panel added it could not prove Park directly ordered the kidnapping at the time.^[22] The kidnapping of Kim Dae-jung on Japanese soil was clearly an infringement on Japanese sovereignty. This matter has attracted much attention in Japan. However, the Park Chung-hee administration described the kidnapping of Kim Dae-jung as "a play written and directed by Kim Dae-jung himself". In order to quell Japanese public opinion, South Korean Prime Minister Kim Jong-pil visited Japan and expressed his apology to Japan. On August 15, 1974, South Korea's Liberation Day, the Moon Se-gwang incident occurred in South Korea. Park Chung-hee's wife, Yuk Young-soo, was shot and killed by Moon Se-gwang, a Japanese Korean who came to assassinate Park Chung-hee, at the National Theater in Jangchung-dong, putting Japan in an awkward position. After that, Japan's investigation into the kidnapping of Kim Dae-jung was also left unresolved.^{[15]: 136-137}

Following the October Restoration military coup, opposition democratic forces suffered severe suppression under Park Chung-hee's dictatorial rule. After the abduction of Kim Dae-jung shocked the government and the public, the democratic camp began to challenge Park Chung-hee's reformist system. Various democratic parties issued declarations demanding the restoration of democracy. On December 24, 1973, the New Democratic Party led a petition campaign with one million signatures demanding constitutional revision. On October 14, 1974, the New Democratic Party, under the leadership of Kim Young-sam, published its "Outline for Constitutional Revision." In March 1975, opposition democratic leaders including Kim Young-sam, Yun Bo-sun, Kim Dae-jung, and Yang Yi-tong reached an agreement to unite opposition forces and form a democratic united front as soon as possible. In response, Park Chung-hee issued Emergency Measures Decree No. 9, comprehensively prohibiting all activities opposing the reformed constitution. In January 1976, the Republican Party indicted Kim Young-sam for violating Emergency Measures Decree No. 9 and expelled Kim Ok-sun, the executor of Kim Young-sam's policies, from the National Assembly. Emergency Measures Order No. 9 plunged the South Korean democracy movement into another low ebb.^{[12]: 208-219}

On March 1, 1976, Kim Dae-jung, along with seventeen other leaders of the pro-democracy movement, jointly signed the "Declaration of Democracy for National Salvation" at Myeongdong Cathedral in Seoul, demanding the resignation of Park Chung-hee and the abolition of the Yushin Constitution. Kim Dae-jung, along with Dr. Chung Il-hyung and others, also held a candlelight vigil in Myeongdong. Prior to this, Kim Dae-jung had told Cardinal Kim Soo-hwan that he was prepared to go to prison to awaken the Korean people. A few days later, the Park Chung-hee regime arrested eighteen pro-democracy activists who had signed the declaration on charges of violating Presidential Emergency Measures Order No. 9. Kim Dae-jung was accused of being the mastermind and sentenced to the maximum seven-year prison term. Following the arrests of these pro-democracy activists, demonstrations demanding their release were held by the public, including their families. The following year, the Supreme Court commuted Kim Dae-jung's sentence to five years in prison and deprived him of his political rights for five years. Meanwhile, Kim Hyung- wook, the former head of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, who was in exile in the United States, revealed the truth about the 1973 kidnapping of Kim Dae-jung in the US Congress and listed the names of those involved in the kidnapping. On July 6, 1978, Park Chung-hee was elected the ninth president of South Korea by the "National Conference on Unification of the Mainland". He then granted Kim Dae-jung a pardon. On December 27 of the same year, Kim Dae-jung returned home after serving two years and nine months in prison, but was soon placed under house arrest by the military government.^{[12]: 219-223 [9]: 171-179 [6]: 201-216 [23]}

On October 26, 1979, after Park Chung-hee was assassinated, Seoul experienced a brief " Spring in Seoul ". On November 10 of the same year, Acting President Choi Kyu-hah issued a "Special Statement" proposing that, in accordance with national law, a "National Assembly for the Unification of the Mainland" be held to indirectly elect a president within three months. The new president would listen to opinions from all sectors as quickly as possible, amend the Yushin Constitution, and then elect a president in accordance with the new constitution. Choi Kyu-hah's speech was supported by the US government. The transitional government quickly lifted a series of emergency measures issued by Park Chung-hee. All sectors of the government and the public also began to prepare for the 1980 presidential election. Two months later, Kim Dae-jung's house arrest was lifted. Kim Dae-jung's citizenship was finally restored on March 1, 1980.^{[12]: 295-303 [9]: 183-191 [6]: 228-229}

On December 12, 1979, Chun Doo-hwan launched the "December 12th Coup," seizing complete control of the military and establishing a caretaker cabinet under Choi Kyu-hah. In May 1980, the three Kims who led the democracy movement, university students, and the public engaged in a life-or-death struggle with Chun Doo-hwan's military forces. Protests demanding the abolition of the Yushin Movement and Chun Doo-hwan's resignation continued to erupt in Seoul. On May 17th of the same year, Chun Doo-hwan launched the "May 17th" military coup. Government buildings, the National Assembly building, news agencies, and universities in Seoul were occupied by the military. Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-pil were arrested, Kim Young-sam was placed under house arrest, and hundreds of other democracy activists were arrested. The military imposed martial law nationwide. South Korea's democratic development process once again entered a period of hardship. The day after Kim Dae-jung's arrest, the " Gwangju Uprising " erupted in Gwangju. On September 11 of the same year, Kim Dae-jung was sentenced to death by a military court on two charges: "conspiracy to instigate the Gwangju Uprising" and "chief culprit of an anti-national group" that organized the "Unification of the Republic of Korea" overseas after the 1972 October Restoration coup. Kim Dae-jung appealed. Pope John Paul II sent a letter to South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan on 11 December 1980, asking for clemency for Kim, a Catholic.^[24] Pope John Paul II sent a letter to South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan on 11 December 1980, asking for clemency for Kim, a Catholic.^{[24][12]: 300-336 [25]: 34 [6]: 232-265}

However, in January 1981, his appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court. Under pressure from the United States, however, Kim Dae-jung's sentence was eventually commuted to life imprisonment. After the sentence was changed to life imprisonment, Kim Dae-jung was transferred from the army prison to Cheongju Prison. During his imprisonment, Kim Dae-jung's wife wrote, totaling 640 letters over two years. His sons also wrote him more than 200 letters. However, the prison did not allow the retention of letters, and letters and photos from family members were confiscated after being viewed. According to prison regulations, Kim Dae-jung could only send one postcard per month at most. To this end, Kim Dae-jung began to practice writing small characters on both sides of the postcards. He once wrote a letter of more than 20,000 words on a postcard sent to his family. In 1983, these letters of Kim Dae-jung were compiled into a book called "With the Regret of the Nation" and published in the United States. Later, it was translated into Japanese and published in Japan under the title "Letters from Prison". In 1984, the book was published in South Korea under the title "Letters from Prison of Kim Dae-jung".^{[12]: 300-336 [25]: 34 [6]: 232-265}

American intelligence understood that Chun wanted Kim's execution to take place during the U.S. presidential transition between the outgoing president Jimmy Carter and president-elect Ronald Reagan. The outgoing Carter Administration, which had poor relations with the South Korean government, asked Reagan's incoming National Security Advisor Richard V. Allen to intervene. Allen, not wanting the Reagan Administration to be blamed for the execution, told Chun that Reagan was opposed to Kim's execution. Allen asked for Kim's sentence to be commuted, and Chun, who was eager to seek American acceptance of his rule following the 1980 coup, accepted in exchange for an invitation to be one of the first foreign leaders to visit the new Reagan Administration at the White House in February 1981.^{[26][27][28][29]: 22} Kim's sentence was commuted to 20 years in prison.

On December 10, 1982, an official came to ask Kim Dae-jung if he was willing to go to the United States for medical treatment. Considering that some people were still imprisoned because of him, Kim Dae-jung refused the suggestion. Later, Kim Dae-jung and his wife reached a compromise with Noh Shin-yong, the Minister of National Security Planning, and agreed to go to the United States on the condition that those imprisoned because of Kim Dae-jung be released. On December 23, Kim Dae-jung and his family were suddenly informed by the authorities to leave the country immediately. In order to avoid the news media, the authorities arranged for Kim Dae-jung and his family to get their passports and tickets in the cabin. The deputy warden of Cheongju Prison also announced the termination of Kim Dae-jung's sentence in the cabin. After arriving at Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., Kim Dae-jung was welcomed by more than 300 supporters. He made an impromptu statement to reporters at the airport. Congressman Edward Kennedy held a welcome party for Kim Dae-jung in Washington.^{[12]: 354-366 [9]: 202-203}

During his exile in the United States, Kim Dae-jung actively engaged in various activities against military dictatorship and to promote the democratization of South Korea. He frequently appeared on local television and radio programs on ABC, NBC, and Public Radio, which made the American public more aware of and concerned about the democratization of South Korea. In July 1983, Kim Dae-jung also established the "Institute for Korean Human Rights Issues".^{[9]: 206 [25]: 75-80} On May 17, 1983, the third anniversary of the Gwangju Uprising, Kim Young-sam launched an indefinite hunger strike to resist Chun Doo-hwan ’s dictatorship. After learning about this, Kim Dae-jung published an article in The New York Times in support of Kim Young-sam. He also organized Korean expatriates in the United States to hold demonstrations in Washington and New York and other places, and held a rally to support Kim Young-sam. This hunger strike also united the democratic forces of Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung in South Korea. In May 1984, the "Association for the Promotion of Democracy" was established. Kim Dae-jung and Kim Young-sam were elected as the presidents of the association.^{[9]: 208-210} On January 8, 1985, the two sides established the " New Democratic Party of Korea " (abbreviated as "New Democratic Party").^[12]: 357

Six months after arriving in the United States, Kim Dae-jung became a visiting researcher at the Harvard University Institute of International Studies, where he conducted related research. During his period abroad, he authored a number of opinion pieces in leading western newspapers that were sharply critical of the South Korean government. On 30 March 1983, Kim presented a speech on human rights and democracy at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia and accepted an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by the institution. During his time at Harvard, he also met the Philippine opposition leader, Benigno Aquino, and his wife. At that time, Kim Dae-jung proposed to Aquino to jointly establish an Asian democratic cause organization. However, on August 21, 1983, Aquino was brutally murdered by the Marcos authorities in the Philippines when he returned home.^{[12]: 356 [9]: 210-211}

In the mid-1980s, with the rise of student and civil movements in South Korea and South Korea 's international commitment to the 1988 Summer Olympic Games, the military government's dictatorship in South Korea had reached its end.^{[note 3]} At the end of 1984, Kim Dae-jung prepared to return to South Korea to contribute to the National Assembly elections on February 12 of the following year, but was opposed by the South Korean government. However, under the intervention of the US government, the South Korean government finally had to allow Kim Dae-jung to return to South Korea and promised his personal safety. In order to prevent Kim Dae-jung from becoming a second Aquino, on February 8, 1985, more than thirty-seven supporters, including Patricia M. Derian, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights, two congressmen, and a number of other prominent Americans accompanied Kim Dae-jung back to South Korea. At Gimpo International Airport, Kim Dae-jung was warmly welcomed by more than 300,000 people. After returning home, Kim Dae-jung was immediately placed under house arrest.^{[9]: 212-215 [6]: 282-287 [30]} Four days after Kim Dae-jung returned to Korea, the election for the 1985 South Korean legislative election had a dramatic result. The New People's Party, which had been established for less than a month, won the election and became the largest opposition party.^{[12]: 359 [6]: 288} Following the ruling government's drubbing in the legislative election, Chun lifted the ban on fourteen opposition politicians, but not for Kim Dae-jung.^[16]

On February 12, 1986, at the first anniversary meeting of the founding of the New Democratic Party, Kim Dae-jung, Kim Young-sam and the president of the New Democratic Party took the lead in signing a petition to amend the constitution. Soon the petition to amend the constitution spread like wildfire throughout the country. On April 30, 1987, Chun Doo-hwan was forced to say under pressure that it was not impossible to amend the constitution during his term. However, on June 10, the ruling Democratic Justice Party held a presidential candidate convention and nominated Roh Tae-woo as the candidate for the 13th presidential election, stubbornly insisting on the indirect election system for the president. This move triggered the largest democratic movement in South Korean history, the " June Democracy Movement ". In order to quell the movement, Roh Tae-woo had no choice but to announce on June 29 that the current constitution would be amended, the presidential election would be conducted directly and Kim Dae-jung would be pardoned.^{[note 4][9]: 215-217 [12]: 359-366 [6]: 303-304}

Although the democratic constitutional reform movement achieved a decisive victory, the democratic camp quickly fell into a dilemma of determining the presidential candidate. Kim Dae-jung said he could join Kim Young-sam 's Unified Democratic Party, but the two Kims refused to give way on the issue of the presidential candidate. Signs of a split appeared between the two leading figures of the democratic movement, Kim Dae-jung and Kim Young-sam. At the same time, another bigwig in the opposition political world, Kim Jong-pil, reorganized the Republican Party on October 30, 1987, and was nominated as the party's presidential candidate. On October 30 of the same year, after negotiations with Kim Young-sam to compete for the presidential candidate of the Unified Democratic Party broke down, Kim Dae-jung withdrew from the Unified Democratic Party and established the Peace Democratic Party (abbreviated as "People's Party"). On November 12, Kim Dae-jung was elected president of the People's Party and presidential candidate. Despite the democratic camp's repeated efforts to ask the two Kims to unite, they were unsuccessful. Finally, the 13th presidential election formed a "one Roh against three Kims" election pattern.^{[6]: 310-312 [12]: 371-373}

Kim Dae-jung threw himself into the election campaign. To obstruct the opposition's victory, the ruling party again instigated regional conflicts and attempted to divide the democratic camp. At Kim Dae-jung's speaking engagements, the ruling party sent people to chant "Support Kim Young-sam," while at Kim Young-sam's speaking engagements, they chanted "Long live Kim Dae-jung!" Violence even erupted at Kim Dae-jung's speaking engagements, with people throwing stones, bottles, and eggs. Furthermore, the ruling party employed old tactics from the Park Chung-hee era, McCarthyistly accusing Kim Dae-jung of being a "communist sympathizer." At a time when the Iron Curtain of the Cold War had not yet been lifted, this had a significant negative impact on Kim Dae-jung's campaign. On November 29, 1987, the Korean Air bombing occurred. The suspect, North Korean agent Kim Hyon-hui, was extradited to South Korea the day before the election. This event dealt a fatal blow to Kim Dae-jung's campaign and was particularly advantageous to Roh Tae-woo 's camp. Ultimately, due to the rivalry among the "three Kims," ​​all three lost the election. The voting results on December 16 showed that Roh Tae-woo received 8.28 million votes (36.6%), Kim Young-sam received 6.33 million votes (28.0%), and Kim Dae-jung received 6.11 million votes (27.1%). Roh Tae-woo benefited from the election and was elected as the first democratically elected president of South Korea since Park Chung-hee.^{[6]: 313-315 [12]: 373-374}

In July 2019, according to American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) documents obtained by Hong Kong's South China Morning Post through a freedom of information request, the military-backed ruling forces drew up detailed plans to fix the election result in case Roh lost. The documents suggested that the government was prepared to crack down hard on any unrest following the vote, with an Intel briefing stating that an "open arrest order" had been prepared for Kim Dae-jung if he tried to "instigate a popular revolt against the election results". As Roh won the election, the plans were not implemented. Kim was subsequently elected to the National Assembly in 1988 and 1992.^[32]

Although Kim Dae-jung lost the 13th presidential election, his People's Party achieved a major victory in the National Assembly elections, winning 70 seats and becoming the largest opposition party. Kim Young-sam 's Democratic Party of Unification won 59 seats, becoming the second largest opposition party. Kim Jong-pil 's Republican Party won 35 seats, becoming the third largest opposition party. The combined seats of the three opposition parties exceeded the 125 seats won by the ruling Democratic Justice Party. This created a situation of "small government, large opposition" in South Korean politics for the first time. At the first session of the 13th National Assembly, Kim Dae-jung returned to the National Assembly podium after 16 years of hardship to deliver a speech. He demanded that the Roh Tae-woo government thoroughly investigate the truth of the Gwangju Uprising and investigate the illegal and corrupt practices of the Chun Doo-hwan government. Under the impetus of the People's Party, the National Assembly used its power of oversight and investigation to establish the "Fifth Republic Hearings." Chun Doo-hwan's corrupt practices were exposed. Under pressure, the Roh Tae-woo government arrested Chun Doo-hwan's family members and close associates suspected of corruption at the end of 1989. Chun Doo-hwan was also forced to attend the National Assembly hearings and apologize to the people. Afterwards, Chun Doo-hwan resigned from all public office, paid 13.9 billion won in political funds, and went into seclusion with his wife at Baekdamsa Temple.^{[6]: 320-324 [12]: 376}

The "small government, large opposition" political landscape placed the Roh Tae-woo government in a very passive position. Bills and proposals put forward by the ruling party faced joint resistance from the three major opposition parties in the National Assembly, plunging the Roh government into a serious political crisis. However, the three major opposition parties did not hold a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly, thus preventing them from passing their own bills. To break this deadlock, Roh Tae-woo sought a coalition government with one or two powerful opposition parties. He first courted Kim Jong-pil, who shared many commonalities with the former Park Chung-hee regime, and later recruited Kim Young-sam. On February 9, 1990, the Democratic Justice Party, the Unification Democratic Party, and the Republican Party officially merged to form the "Democratic Liberal Party" (DMLP), with Roh Tae-woo elected as its president and Kim Young-sam and Kim Jong-pil elected as Supreme Council members. Through the merger of the three parties, Roh Tae-woo successfully divided and consolidated the opposition political forces, giving the ruling party significantly more seats in the National Assembly than required for constitutional amendments, ending the "small government, large opposition" situation. Subsequently, the ruling Democratic Liberal Party used its absolute majority in the National Assembly to force through a series of controversial bills. The merger of the three parties caused a great shock in South Korea. Kim Young-sam, the former opposition leader of democracy, was actually merged into the ruling party of the successor to the dictatorship. Kim Dae-jung severely criticized this. In July of the same year, 80 opposition Democratic Party members resigned en masse to protest the dictatorship of the ruling party. On October 8, Kim Dae-jung began a hunger strike to resist the dictatorship, and later 30 members of the People's Party joined his hunger strike. Anti-government student movements also continued one after another.^{[33][6]: 336-340 [12]: 376-381}

On the other hand, the merger of the three parties did not proceed as smoothly as Roh Tae-woo had envisioned. Roh attempted to absorb Kim Young-sam 's original democratic forces. However, Kim Young-sam and Roh Tae-woo's forces were originally two parties of different natures, and although merged, they remained irreconcilable. Just when Kim Young-sam was in his most difficult situation, his old ally Kim Dae-jung once again came to his aid. On March 24, 1992, in the 14th National Assembly election in South Korea, Kim Dae-jung's People's Party gained 20 more seats than the previous election, achieving a landslide victory, while the ruling Democratic Liberal Party only won 148 seats, failing to reach the two-thirds majority required for constitutional amendment. With his prestige greatly enhanced, Kim Dae-jung was bound to run for the next presidential election, and within the Democratic Liberal Party, no one except Kim Young-sam could rival him. In order to maintain the Democratic Liberal Party's ruling position, it had no choice but to elect Kim Young-sam as its presidential candidate. In August 1992, Kim Young-sam took over the position of president of the Democratic Liberal Party from Roh Tae-woo.^{[12]: 382 [6]: 342-343}

In December 1992, Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung ran for president in South Korea's presidential election as candidates for the ruling Democratic Liberal Party and the opposition People's Party, respectively. The election was extremely competitive. The ruling party resorted to old tactics from the Park Chung-hee era, spreading rumors and slanders against Kim Dae-jung, accusing him of "cooperating with the Communists." On October 6, 1992, before the election, the government disclosed the "Ri Son-sil spy network incident," which caused a huge uproar in South Korea. North Korean spy Ri Son-sil had infiltrated South Korea three times, infiltrating various South Korean organizations and establishing a South Korean branch of the Workers' Party of Korea. The ruling party spread rumors that Ri Son-sil had visited Kim Dae-jung's home and even posed for a photo with Kim Dae-jung's wife. The National Security Planning Department spread rumors that "Chairman Kim Il-sung of the North called on voters in the South to support candidate Kim Dae-jung in this election." In addition, the ruling party incited regional sentiments among voters, putting Kim Dae-jung at a disadvantage in the election. Kim Dae-jung lost all his constituencies except Seoul and Honam. On December 19, 1992, Kim Young-sam was elected as the 14th President of South Korea with the support of the ruling Democratic Liberal Party, becoming the first civilian president of South Korea since Park Chung-hee.^{[6]: 352-356 [12]: 382-383 [34]}

The defeat in this presidential election dealt a heavy blow to Kim Dae-jung. Kim Dae-jung, who is now in his seventies, reviewed his arduous and tortuous political career over the past forty years and decided to resign from his position as a member of the National Assembly the day after the election, thus retiring from politics. The South Korean media gave extensive coverage to Kim Dae-jung's retirement. The media's cold suppression of Kim Dae-jung during the election period turned overnight into a hero-like adoration and retrospective of him as a "political giant," a "political pillar," and "a figure who has appeared in the 40 years of democratization."^{[6]: 356-358 [12]: 384-386}

On January 26, 1993, Kim Dae-jung accepted an invitation from the University of Cambridge to study in England as a research fellow. His research topic was the reunification of Germany and the integration of Europe. During his studies in Europe, Kim Dae-jung visited Germany several times to study the reunification of Germany and to refine and expand his "three-stage unification theory." Prior to this, he and his wife also made a special trip to The Hague, Netherlands, to pay respects at the grave of Lee Joon, the Korean special envoy to The Hague. During his time in Cambridge, Kim Dae-jung met renowned Cambridge scholars such as astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, modern sociologist Anthony Giddens, and democrat John Dunn. In 1991, during Hawking's visit to South Korea, Kim Dae-jung attended a banquet at the invitation of the British Ambassador to South Korea and met Hawking for the first time. In Cambridge, Kim Dae-jung and Hawking were neighbors separated by a wall. He was deeply inspired by Hawking's perseverance. During his studies in England, Kim Dae-jung also wrote his autobiographical essay, "For a New Beginning." At the end of June 1993, Kim Dae-jung finished his studies at Cambridge University and returned to South Korea.^{[6]: 360-368 [12]: 387-389 [25]: 17-19 [15]: 295-297}

On January 27, 1994, Kim Dae-jung and Corazon Aquino, the widow of Ninoy Aquino and the first female president of the Philippines, founded the Asia-Pacific Peace Foundation. Kim Dae-jung and Corazon Aquino served as co-chairpersons of the foundation. On December 10, 1993, Kim Dae-jung, as a representative of South Korea, attended the inaugural meeting of the International Conference on Asian Democracy and Human Rights in Bangkok, Thailand, and delivered a speech, once again attracting the attention of the world as a symbol of democracy.^[6] In May 1994, when North Korea’s nuclear weapons became the focus of the world’s attention, Kim Dae-jung visited the United States. He delivered a speech at the National Press Club, calling on North Korea to disclose the true situation of its nuclear energy development, and at the same time urging the United States to establish diplomatic relations with North Korea and resolve North Korea’s nuclear weapons issue with a package plan. Under Kim Dae-jung’s mediation, US President Bill Clinton sent former President Jimmy Carter to North Korea to meet with Kim Il sung to discuss North Korea’s nuclear weapons issue, and the meeting was successful. In November of the same year, Kim Dae-jung also visited mainland China and met with Li Ruihuan, the Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.^{[6]: 374-380 [12]: 390}

After Kim Dae-jung withdrew from politics, the opposition Democratic Party became weak and powerless, and could only cater to the government and the ruling party, and could not play the role that the opposition party should play. Some members of parliament and members of the Democratic Party hoped that Kim Dae-jung could make a comeback. Kim Dae-jung could not ignore this situation. In June 1995, in the first local council and local government elections in South Korea in thirty years, the Democratic Party supported by Kim Dae-jung defeated the ruling Democratic Liberal Party. Kim Dae-jung believed that the time was right and announced his return to politics on July 18, 1995, to revitalize the opposition party in order to restrain the one-party rule structure. On September 5 of the same year, Kim Dae-jung formed a new political party, the National Assembly of New Politics, and served as its president. In the 1996 National Assembly elections, the National Assembly became the largest opposition party in South Korea.^{[6]: 383-390 [12]: 391}

In preparation for the 1997 presidential election, the National Assembly for New Politics led by Kim Dae-jung formed an alliance with the Democratic Liberal Party led by Kim Jong-pil. In December 1997, Kim Dae-jung ran for the presidency of South Korea for the fourth time as the joint presidential candidate of both parties, competing against Lee Hoi-chang, the presidential candidate of the ruling party, the Grand National Party, and Lee In-je, who ran independently after leaving the ruling party. During the campaign, Kim Dae-jung put forward the campaign platform of "Towards the 21st century, towards a new politics of unification", and put forward the "regional change theory" based on the public's dissatisfaction with the ruling party and the status quo. At the same time, Kim Dae-jung made full use of the unfavorable situation of the 1997 Asian financial crisis on the ruling party to vigorously establish a new image of "economic president" and "president who is ready". Initially trailing heavily in the polls and seen by some as a perennial candidate, his situation became favorable when the public revolted against the incumbent conservative Kim Young-sam government in the wake of the nation's economic collapse in the Asian financial crisis just weeks before the election.^{[6]: 392-401 [35][12]: 395 [35]}

In the election held on 18 December 1997, at the age of 73, Kim Dae-jung, with more than 40 years of political experience and a correct campaign platform, finally defeated his opponents and was elected as the 15th president of South Korea. His election victory at that time was the closest ever, where a split in the ruling conservative party led to separate candidacies of Lee Hoi-chang and Lee In-je, and both achieved 38.7% and 19.2% of the vote respectively, enabling Kim to win with only 40.3% of the popular vote or by a margin of 390,000 votes of 26 million over Lee Hoi-chang.^[36] Lee Hoi-chang was a former Supreme Court Justice and Prime Minister who had graduated at the top of his class from the Seoul National University School of Law. Lee was widely viewed as politically inexperienced, elitist, and his inept handling of charges that his sons had dodged the mandatory military service further damaged his campaign.

Kim, in contrast, had an outsider image which suited the anti-establishment mood and developed a strategy to use the media effectively in his campaign. In 1997, the "North Winds" scandal involved lawmakers of Lee's party, who met North Korean agents in Beijing, who agreed to instigate, in exchange for bribes, a skirmish on the DMZ right before the presidential election to try to cause a panic that would hamper Kim's campaign due to his dovish stand on North Korea.^[37][38][39] Lee's colleagues were later prosecuted.^[40] Ex-presidents Park Chung Hee, Chun Doo-hwan, Roh Tae-woo, and Kim Young-sam hailed from the Gyeongsang Province region, which became wealthier since 1945 partly because of the policies of Park, Chun, and Roh's regimes. Kim Dae-jung was the first president who came from the southwestern Jeolla region to serve a full term, an area that had been neglected and less developed partly because of the previous presidents' discriminatory policies.

Two days after the election, outgoing president Kim Young-sam and the president-elect Kim Dae-jung met and formed a joint 12-member Emergency Economic Committee (ECC), made up of six members each from the outgoing and incoming governments but effectively under the president-elect's control, serving as the de facto economic cabinet until Kim Dae-jung would assume office two months later on 25 February 1998. This meant that Kim effectively had taken charge of making economic decisions during this period even before he took office.^{[12]: 395 [35]}

The president-elect's coalition and the majority Grand National Party of the outgoing president also agreed to convene a special session of the National Assembly to deal with a series of thirteen financial reform bills required under both the original IMF program and its 24 December revised deal. This transition period saw important financial reform legislation being passed into law, that had been stalled under the outgoing government. The president-elect cooperated with the outgoing government and ruling party to get legislative backing for several important reform measures. In particular, the delegation of substantial powers to the newly created Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) greatly enhanced the government's powers to rein in the chaebols who were caught up in the crisis.^[41]

As president-elect, Kim Dae-jung also advised outgoing president Kim Young-sam to pardon two former presidents who were both imprisoned in 1996 for corruption, treason and insurrection, Chun Doo-hwan (who had Kim sentenced to death) and Roh Tae-woo (Chun's second-in-command), in the spirit of national unity.

His swearing-in as the eighth president of South Korea on 25 February 1998, marked the first time in Korean history that the ruling party peacefully transferred power to a democratically elected opposition winner.^[42][43] Kim took office amidst an economic crisis. In his inaugural address, President Kim characterized his administration as a "government of the people".

Kim Dae-jung was elected at a time when the 1997 Asian financial crisis hit South Korea hard, and he was "appointed in a time of crisis".^{[6]: 406-407 [25]: 61-68} In December 1997, shortly after being elected president, Kim Dae-jung consulted with Kim Young-sam to pardon Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo, two old enemies who were imprisoned for corruption, and affirmed their contributions to the economic development of South Korea. Kim Dae-jung hoped to use this move to unite all parties in South Korea to deal with the financial crisis together. He advocated reforming the laws and systems that lead to corruption. Kim Dae-jung adhered to the national view of "unity of the people" and opposed narrow party and regional concepts.^[44] Under the IMF system, Kim Dae-jung coordinated the departments of all parties in South Korea to carry out sweeping reforms in the four areas of enterprises, finance, public utilities and labor employment.^{[45]: 337 [46]: 161} In order to overcome the foreign exchange crisis, Kim Dae-jung and his wife responded to the "gold donation campaign" launched by the Korean people and donated their treasured gold jewelry.^[47]

Kim Dae-jung also personally advertised Korean tourism with the HOT group. This was not only the first time in Korean history that a head of state personally filmed an advertisement for the tourism industry, but it was also an unprecedented situation in the international community.^[48][49] Under Kim Dae-jung's leadership, after the Korean economy shrank by 7% in 1998, it grew rapidly by 9.5% in 1999.^[50]: 198 Kim Dae-jung's reforms not only enabled Korea to get out of the financial crisis in a relatively short period of time, but also transformed the Korean economy from a low-end product export-oriented economy to an information high-tech economy. Kim Dae-jung's reforms laid a good foundation for Korea's future economic development and also enhanced Korea's ability to resist global financial crises such as the 2008 global financial crisis.^[51] Kim Dae-jung was therefore recognized by the international community as an "excellent student" in overcoming the financial crisis.^[52]

Kim Dae-jung's "Great Unity" national view is also reflected in his advocacy of national and ethnic unity.^[44] After taking office, Kim Dae-jung actively promoted reconciliation between the North and South and successfully held the first inter-Korean summit with Kim Jong Il, the General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, "bringing sunshine and warmth to the last Cold War region in the global village".^[53] In terms of foreign policy with the United States, Japan, China and Russia, Kim Dae-jung implemented "four-power coordination diplomacy", which promoted peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and enhanced South Korea's international status and influence by strengthening the ROK-US alliance, improving ROK- Japan relations, and steadily developing ROK-China and ROK-Russia relations.^[54]

Kim Dae-jung's governing philosophy is the coordinated development of democratic system, market economy and social welfare. To this end, he abandoned the bureaucratic authoritarian system, reformed the chaebol economy and supported the development of small and medium-sized enterprises. He believed that cultivating a strong middle class and civil society is the prerequisite for the modernization of Korean politics.^[44] In June 1999, Kim Dae-jung was selected as one of the "50 Leaders Leading Reforms in Asia" by BusinessWeek.^[55]

The first task of the Kim administration was restoring investor confidence. The administration held a series of intensive meetings with foreign creditors and quickly succeeded in rescheduling one-quarter of Korea's short-term liabilities.^[56] He vigorously pushed economic reform and restructuring recommended by the International Monetary Fund, in the process significantly altering the landscape of South Korean economy. He commenced the gold-collecting campaign in South Korea to overcome the debt to the International Monetary Fund.^{[57][42][58]: 245 [59]}

As a presidential candidate, Kim briefly questioned the conditions attached to the IMF loans and suggested that he might renegotiate it. However, upon his election, Kim quickly recognized the importance of the IMF agreement in restnorig South Korea's economic health.^[60] Since then, he has implemented the most neoliberal policy among the major presidents of South Korea, leading to his nickname of "Neoliberal Revolutionist" (Korean: 신자유주의 혁명가).^[61]

Immediately after taking office, the Kim Dae-jung government pushed for revision of the Outside Auditor Law to facilitate the adoption of consolidated financial statements in accordance with international standards, beginning in 1999.^[62] Furthermore, as cross-guarantees allowed loss-making affiliates and subsidiaries with chaebol groups to continue to borrow from banks and drain financial resources from healthier firms, on 1 April 1998, the government prohibited any new intra-chaebol mutual payment guarantees and ordered the phasing-out of the existing guarantees by March 2000. Banks were directed to negotiate financial restructuring agreements with chaebol groups to reduce any outstanding debts, including closing insolvent firms. With the government's commitment to introduce internationally accepted accounting practices, including independent external audits, full disclosure, and consolidated statements by conglomerates, the Kim administration helped to improve the transparency of chaebol corporate balance-sheets and governance and bring Korea's economy to greater integration with the global economy.

In the last year of Kim Young-sam's term, the Asian financial crisis swept through South Korea, and the highly indebted South Korean chaebols suffered a devastating blow, with nine chaebols declaring bankruptcy one after another. The domino-like collapse of the chaebols caused a large amount of international capital to withdraw from South Korea, South Korea's foreign exchange reserves plummeted, and the Korean won depreciated rapidly. Economic reform to revitalize the South Korean economy became an urgent issue for Kim Dae-jung, who had just taken office.^{[46]: 1-2 [50]: 206-207} The main contents of Kim Dae-jung's reform of the chaebols included improving the transparency of corporate operations, prohibiting mutual debt guarantees, avoiding excessive debt operations, implementing specialized operations to avoid the "octopus claw" development model, strengthening the responsibility of controlling shareholders and operators, governing the non-bank financial institutions owned by the chaebols, stopping mutual investment within the chaebols and illegal internal transactions, and preventing improper wealth accumulation. After discussing with the heads of the five major chaebols in South Korea at the time, namely Hyundai, Daewoo, Samsung, LG, and SK, Kim Daejung introduced the "Five Tasks for Corporate Reform" and "Three Supplementary Tasks" for chaebol reform after taking office. Under the framework of the "5+3 Tasks", the Kim Daejung government adopted three approaches to deal with the chaebols: "closure, assistance, and exchange". For companies with no hope of survival, the government closed them down through bankruptcy, sale, merger, and court takeover.^[46]: 172

The government also adopted a proactive foreign investment policy. Scores of banks were closed, merged or taken over by the government, and surviving banks were recapitalized. The chaebol were pressured to lower their perilously high debt-equity ratios and establish greater corporate transparency and accountability. Foreign direct investment, under Kim, was viewed as vital to the financial and corporate reform process as a form of secure, stable and long-term form of investment, and also able to acquire new technologies and managerial practices.^[56]

By June 1998, a total of 55 large companies, including Daewoo Group, the second largest chaebol in South Korea at the time, had been closed. The myth of "Daewoo never dies" was also broken with the collapse of Daewoo Group. For companies with heavy debts but hope of survival, the Kim Dae-jung government required creditor banks to provide financial assistance. By June 1998, a total of 83 companies benefited from this and embarked on the road to restructuring. Hyundai Group, the largest conglomerate in South Korea at the time, was also dissolved and reorganized during Kim Dae-jung's economic reforms.^{[63]: 49-50} Kim's administration did not shy away from using strong-arm tactics to bring about desired results. For example, when LG Group objected to Hyundai taking the controlling share and decided to pull out in the midst of merger negotiations, the newly created Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) immediately called in LG Group's creditors to discuss punitive measures, including immediate suspension of credit and recall of existing loans and threatened to conduct a tax probe. In the end, LG Group agreed to the merger, relinquishing management control and selling its semiconductor business to Hyundai. Similarly, Samsung was encouraged to sell its automotive operations to Daewoo.^[64] Despite worries of a second economic crisis in the wake of Daewoo's bankruptcy in July 1999 (after its chairman, Kim Woo-choong continued to raise the company's indebtedness and aggressively expand in spite of government restructuring and aid), the economic recovery remained on track. By also deciding not to bail out Daewoo, Kim's government conveyed a message to chaebols that no company was too big to fail.

In addition, the Kim Dae-jung government implemented a "large-scale business exchange" policy, which involved merging and reorganizing companies in the same industry under different conglomerates to allow the conglomerates to exchange businesses. This move was intended to solve the problems of redundant investment and excessive business scope of enterprises. However, due to the lobbying of the conglomerates and the government's lack of resolve, many transactions eventually became simple mergers or acquisitions of two companies, thus failing to achieve the goal of business exchange. This foreshadowed the incompleteness of the reforms. While reforming the conglomerate system, the Kim Dae-jung government fully supported small and medium-sized enterprises and venture enterprises to reduce the weight of conglomerates in South Korea's GDP.^[65]

In order to cope with the trend of world development, Kim Dae-jung proposed a development path of building a nation based on science and technology and elevated the development of information technology to a national strategy.^[66] He often said, "I hope to be the president who revitalizes the IT industry." Kim Dae-jung’s support for the information technology industry has injected vitality and competitiveness into the development of the Korean economy. The Kim Dae-jung administration built up country-wide high-speed ICT infrastructure and fostered IT and venture businesses as the future source of growth. In his inaugural address, he expressed a vision for South Korea to advance "from the ranks of industrial societies…into the ranks of the knowledge and information-based societies where intangible knowledge and information will be the driving power for economic development".^[67][68] Today, South Korea is one of the most technologically developed countries in the world and has a well-connected cyberinfrastructure which began to be built and fostered under President Kim. In addition, Kim Dae-jung also advocated the development of the cultural industry, making important contributions to the rise of Korean culture on the global stage. In 1999, Kim Dae-jung increased the budget of the cultural sector by 40%, making the cultural budget account for 1% of the total budget for the first time. The Korean cultural industry benefited greatly during Kim Dae-jung’s administration.^[6]: 525 The " Korean Wave " also emerged in Asia during this period.^[69]

For a long time, South Korea has implemented a "government-controlled financial system".^[66] The capital market is underdeveloped, the financial system is unsound, and banking institutions lack risk management awareness. Before the outbreak of the Asian financial crisis, South Korea opened up the financial industry in a disorderly manner when its own financial system was not mature and there was a lack of corresponding regulatory measures, which led to a rapid increase in short-term debt and ultimately caused the financial crisis in the country. In order to deal with the crisis, South Korea accepted US$58.3 billion in aid from the International Monetary Fund in December 1997. Based on the package of measures proposed by the IMF and the World Bank, the Kim Dae-jung government carried out a comprehensive reform of the South Korean financial system.^[50]: 197 On December 29, 1997, the National Assembly of South Korea passed thirteen financial reform measures. According to the new Bank of Korea Law, the governor of the central bank is directly appointed by the president after discussion by the National Assembly and is in charge of the monetary committee with the most policy-making power, thereby cutting off the Ministry of Finance's actual control over the central bank and enhancing the independence of the central bank.^[70][71]

Under the administration, expenditure on social protection was tripled. Outlays on social protection were increased from 2.6 trillion won (0.6 per cent of GDP) in 1997 to 9.1 trillion won (2.0 per cent of GDP) in 1999.^[72] The biggest policies that were introduced or expanded during Kim's term were:^[73]

• expansion of the unemployment insurance program by including all firms (originally, only firms with more than 30 employees were covered), shortening the contribution period required for eligibility, and extending the duration of unemployment benefits. Thus the eligible workforce was increased from 5.7 million workers at the beginning of 1998 to 8.7 million at the end of the year.
• introduction of a temporary public work program in May 1998, enrolling 76,000 workers. By January 1999, the program provided 437,000 jobs.
• temporary livelihood protection program covering 750,000 beneficiaries. It also introduced a means-tested noncontributory social pension for 600,000 elderly people.

In April 1998, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), which was directly under the Blue House and responsible for supervising banks, securities companies and insurance companies, was established, marking a turning point in the development of the Korean financial regulatory system.^[70] The establishment of the FSC separated the financial regulatory function from the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Korea. According to the Financial Industry Structure Improvement Act, the FSC was fully responsible for the restructuring of the Korean financial system. In terms of the deposit insurance system, on December 31, 1997, Korea further strengthened the deposit insurance system by revising the Act.^[71] On April 1, 1998, the scope of deposit insurance liability of the Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation was expanded to include all deposits of banks, securities companies, insurance companies, merchant banks, mutual savings banks and credit unions.^[74][75] In addition, in order to cope with the financial crisis, the functions of the Korea Asset Management Corporation (KAMCO) were also expanded, and it could purchase non-performing assets of troubled banks and other financial institutions by issuing bonds. In addition, the Kim Dae-jung government changed South Korea’s previous passive and closed foreign investment policy and actively opened up to foreign investment, which greatly improved the foreign investment environment in South Korea.^[70] In 1999, the amount of foreign investment introduced by South Korea increased sharply from US$8.9 billion in 1998 to US$15.5 billion.^[66]

In terms of financial restructuring, the Kim Dae-jung government closed, merged, reorganized and privatized troubled banks and financial institutions at the request of the International Monetary Fund, and injected 55.6 billion won of public funds into the banking industry in 1998 to digest "non-performing loans".^[66] During the period from 1998 to early 2003, 32.4% of South Korean financial institutions were closed.^[76] Among them, the most serious non-performing loan problem was the comprehensive financial institutions, 93% of which were closed, and only three were still operating normally by 2003. In addition, the Kim Dae-jung government also actively introduced foreign investment to participate in the banking industry and increased the proportion of foreign ownership. According to statistics from the Central Bank of Korea, in 2003, foreign investors held a 38.6% stake in the South Korean banking industry.^[71] In order to enhance the security of the financial system, the Kim Dae-jung government also introduced the rapid corrective action (PCA) system based on the United States and formulated loan classification standards and institutional regulations that were more cautious than international standards. From July 1, 1998, South Korea began to tighten the reserve system. Since June 1998, South Korea has also raised the standards for financial accounting and government auditing. In addition, the Kim Dae-jung government has strengthened risk management of short-term foreign currency debt. The country uses international credit rating as a standard to reveal risks.^[77]

The reforms were modestly successful in getting the chaebols to change their ownership structure by separating ownership from management. Therefore, the largest changes made in this period were reforms in chaebol corporate governance through consolidated financial statements, independent external audits and reduction of intra-group mutual payment guarantees. Chaebols also streamlined their operations by reducing their excessive leverage and consolidating their many operations in a few core competencies. Some also reduced their debt burden and increased their profitability.^[78] After the economy shrank by 5.8 percent in 1998, it grew 10.2 percent in 1999, marking an impressive recovery.^[3] South Korea repaid the IMF loan in August 2001, 3 years ahead of schedule.^{[79]: 590-591}</ref> Exports also recovered, led by exporting of semiconductors, automobiles, liquid crystal displays and mobile phones.^[56] Foreign investment during 1998 and 1999 exceeded that of the cumulative total for the previous 40 years. Foreign exchange reserves went from a perilously low $3.9 billion in December 1997 to $74.0 billion at the end of 1999, nearly double Korea's short-term external liabilities.^[56] The exchange rate strengthened quickly by 30% against the U.S. dollar,^{[80]: 356 [9]: 210-211}to the point of actually causing concern about eroding Korea's international competitiveness, and unemployment fell. The administration also amended the bankruptcy laws, simplifying legal proceedings for corporate rehabilitation and filing of bankruptcy and streamlining provisions for non-viable firms to exit markets.^[81]

With the active response of the Kim Dae-jung government, South Korea emerged from the shadow of the financial crisis in a very short time. On December 6, 1999, Kim Dae-jung officially announced the end of the financial crisis. South Korea became the first country in East Asia to recover from the impact of the financial crisis. By August 2001, South Korea’s foreign exchange reserves had recovered from US$3.9 billion during the crisis to US$97.8 billion, ranking fifth in the world in terms of foreign exchange reserves; the exchange rate of the Korean won against the US dollar was basically stable at 11,300:1; the unemployment rate dropped from 5.9% in February 1998 to 3.4%; and foreign debt also decreased significantly, from US$180 billion at the end of 1997 to US$127 billion, and South Korea became a net creditor country. On August 23, 2001, South Korea repaid the US$19.5 billion emergency bailout loan from the International Monetary Fund three years ahead of schedule.^[45]: 339

The government also adopted a proactive foreign investment policy. Scores of banks were closed, merged or taken over by the government, and surviving banks were recapitalized. The chaebol were pressured to lower their perilously high debt-equity ratios and establish greater corporate transparency and accountability. Foreign direct investment, under Kim, was viewed as vital to the financial and corporate reform process as a form of secure, stable and long-term form of investment, and also able to acquire new technologies and managerial practices.^[56]

Kim Dae-jung's government also enhanced labour market flexibility as a key goal of structural reforms. Kim forged corporatist agreements between business, labour and government to get them to work together to resolve the country's financial woes. Kim's long history in the opposition, his pro-labour views and his overall populist, outsider credentials enabled him to get his mobilized and militant working-class voter base to make sacrifices to meet fiscal stabilization, while also asking businesses to make sacrifices at the same time.^[82]

After successful tripartite consultative negotiations between labor, business and government, the Labor Standards Act was amended by the National Assembly on 13 February 1998. Under the new accord, business promised to ensure transparency in its management and to take prudent measures when laying off its employees. Specifically, the law provided legal grounds for employment adjustment and permits layoffs only after a company has duly considered the interests of its workers. Labour, on the other hand, agreed to the implementation of flexible worker layoffs for restructuring, while pledging to work towards to enhancing productivity and cooperate with business on terms of wages and working hours. As for government, it committed itself to strengthening its support programs by providing vocational training and information on re-employment. New employment options such as temporary work, part-time employment and work at home were developed. To deal with the expected large-scale layoffs from the economic crisis and restructuring process, the government also pledged to strengthen and expand the coverage of unemployment insurance.^[82]

As the South Korean government has long been committed to supporting the development of large enterprises, there is an excessive non- market economic relationship between the government, enterprises and banks, bureaucracy and corruption have proliferated, and government efficiency is low. The outbreak of the Asian financial crisis has fully exposed this drawback. In order to cope with the socio-economic development under the new situation, Kim Dae-jung proposed the administrative reform goal of establishing a "small but efficient service-oriented government". To this end, he carried out administrative reforms in three aspects: adjusting the structure of the public sector, reforming the administrative operation system and improving services to the people.^[83]

Between 1998 and 2001, Kim Dae-jung carried out three institutional adjustments aimed at transforming government functions to adapt to changes in administrative needs. These adjustments strengthened presidential powers, enhanced the cabinet's ability to regulate the economy, and strengthened the supervision of social functions such as food and drug safety, women's rights protection, and human resource development and management. At the same time, Kim Dae-jung streamlined the number of government civil servants, reducing the number of South Korean civil servants to the level of 10 years before 1992. In 2002, the ratio of South Korean civil servants to the population was the lowest among OECD countries, making it a veritable "small government". In addition, Kim Dae-jung further narrowed the scope of the public sector by actively promoting the privatization of state-owned enterprises. By 2002, a total of 74 state-owned enterprises had completed the privatization process. In addition, Kim Dae-jung successively delegated 138 functions and powers originally belonging to the central government to local governments at all levels, effectively improving administrative efficiency.^[83]

In terms of administrative operation system reform, the government of Kim Dae-jung successively issued and revised the Law on the Establishment of Responsible Operation Agencies, the National Civil Servant Law, the Civil Servant Salary Regulations and the Open Position Operation Regulations, and carried out organizational and personnel operation system reform by introducing open appointment system, responsible operation agency system and result salary system.^[83] Twenty percent of the positions of bureau-level cadres were open to external recruitment, and non-governmental civil servants could compete with government civil servants for senior positions. The "open" personnel appointment system enabled the government to improve the level of professionalism by hiring professionals. The salary of civil servants was based on a combination of basic salary and performance bonus, which provided an incentive mechanism for improving the work enthusiasm and innovative spirit of civil servants. Some administrative functions were independently executed by establishing "responsible operation agencies". These agencies clarified their work objectives and personnel and financial status with the government departments under their jurisdiction through contracts, and had relaxed policies and personnel appointment rights. The work results of the "responsible operation agencies" were evaluated by the leaders of the government departments. According to the "results management" system, the government could return all or a certain percentage of the fiscal budget surplus based on its work results.^[84]

In terms of improving government services to the people, the Kim Dae-jung administration began to widely implement the administrative service charter system in the central and local governments in 1998, and carried out reforms to improve services in areas where the public was most dissatisfied, such as police, housing, transportation, education, environment, welfare and labor, food and health.^[83] In order to improve service quality and government efficiency and transparency, Kim Dae-jung also proposed a plan to realize " e-government " within five years.^[85] In 2001, the portal of Kim Dae-jung's e-government was rated as one of the top ten government portal websites in the world by the United Nations Department of Public Economics and Public Administration (UNDPEPA) and the American Association of Public Administration. Among them, the civil business disclosure system in Seoul was recognized internationally as a model of government anti-corruption construction. Kim Dae-jung's "e-government" plan was continued and developed by his successive governments. At present, South Korea has become a world leader in e-government.^[86][87]

Due to the long-term adherence to the development policy of "economic growth first, welfare second", South Korea's social security expenditure as a percentage of GDP is far lower than the average level of OECD countries. Faced with the large number of business failures and rising unemployment caused by the Asian financial crisis, building a social security system that is compatible with the free market economy has become another urgent problem for the Kim Dae-jung government. This is also one of the conditions for the IMF's financial assistance to South Korea.^[88][89] To this end, Kim Dae-jung took the development of "productive welfare" as the direction of reform. In order to accelerate the process of labor flexibility, the labor union, employers and government of South Korea established the Labor-Management-Government Committee in January 1998 and signed the "Tripartite Agreement" in February of the same year, which made it legal for financially distressed companies to lay off employees.^[45]: 342 At the same time, the state has assumed social responsibility in principle, including guaranteeing the minimum social standard of living.^[88][90]

In terms of social insurance, the Kim Dae-jung government expanded the coverage of social insurance. By 2000, all workers, regardless of the size of their enterprises, were legally entitled to unemployment insurance, work injury compensation insurance, national pension insurance, and medical insurance. The social insurance contribution rates of employers, employees, and government budgets were all increased.^[89] Kim Dae-jung also merged and consolidated the medical insurance systems that were previously operated separately in different regions of South Korea, and established a unified national medical insurance system in July 2000. He also promoted the separation of medicine and pharmacy in accordance with the revised Pharmacist Law. In terms of social relief, the National Minimum Living Standard Guarantee Law was introduced in 1999, which guaranteed the minimum living standard of the people and supported the self-reliance of the people by providing financial assistance to low-income groups through national finance. In addition, during Kim Dae-jung's tenure, South Korea also formulated or revised a series of social welfare laws and regulations, such as the Domestic Violence Prevention Law (1998), the Parents Welfare Law (2002), the Child Welfare Law (1999), and the Disability Welfare Law (1999).^[91]

During Kim Dae-jung's presidency, South Korea's human rights situation improved significantly. In January 2001, several human rights laws and regulations were passed by the National Assembly, including the Special Law on Correcting the Truth of Doubtful Deaths, the Law on Restoring the Reputation and Compensation of Individuals Related to the Democracy Movement, and the Law on Correcting the Truth of the Jeju "April 3rd" Incident and Restoring the Reputation of Victims. These laws led to the redress of wrongful convictions and miscarriages of justice in South Korea's past democratic movement, with victims and their families receiving compensation from the government. In May of the same year, at Kim Dae-jung's urging, the South Korean government enacted the National Human Rights Commission Law. In November of the same year, the National Human Rights Commission, an independent human rights body free from interference and control, was formally established. This provided legal and institutional guarantees for the development of human rights in South Korea. Due to strong opposition from the opposition parties and conservative institutions, the amendment to the much-criticized South Korean National Security Law failed to pass. However, a series of measures taken to revise the National Security Law emphasized the necessity of its careful implementation and strengthened human rights awareness during law enforcement. To protect the human rights of prisoners, the Kim Dae-jung administration amended the Criminal Code. The revised criminal law provides protection for the right of prisoners to appeal and improves the punishment system, prohibiting staff in correctional facilities from arbitrarily using restraints. The revised criminal law also allows prisoners to read newspapers, does not restrict prisoners' hairstyles, and allows unconvicted prisoners not to wear prison clothes. Released prisoners are entitled to basic living security assistance from the people.^{[6]: 647-652}

The Kim Dae-jung government made many efforts to improve the social status of women and protect their rights. In July 1998, the Kim Dae-jung government began to implement the Special Act on Punishment of Domestic Violence Crimes and the Act on Prevention of Domestic Violence and Protection of Victims, which aimed to eliminate domestic violence ; in January 1999, the Act on Anti-Gender Discrimination and Victim Assistance was promulgated. In January 2001, the first Ministry of Women in South Korea was established.^{[6]: 640-641} Democratic Party lawmaker Han Myung-sook was appointed by Kim Dae-jung as the first head (minister) of the Ministry of Women in South Korea. In addition, Kim Dae-jung appointed four female heads in the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Lee In-ho, who was fluent in Russian, was appointed as the South Korean ambassador to Russia.^{[15]: 319-320} On January 3, 2002, Army Colonel Yang Seung-sook was promoted to brigadier general, becoming the first female general in South Korean history. Kim Dae-jung awarded her the Three-Sword Technique.^[6]: 673 On January 29 of the same year, Kim Dae-jung appointed Park Ji-won, the former chief policy planning representative, as the first female spokesperson for the Blue House On July 11, Kim Dae-jung appointed Jang Sang, the first female acting prime minister of South Korea.^[6]: 691

Kim Dae-jung was born during the Japanese occupation and experienced the division of the Korean Peninsula after World War II. He firmly believed that North-South reconciliation was "the best way to end the tragedy of national division and unify the motherland," and a prerequisite for national peace and prosperity. As early as 1971, when Kim Dae-jung first ran for president of South Korea, he boldly proposed a "three-stage unification theory", advocating "North-South exchanges, opening the door to diplomacy with communist countries, and peaceful cooperation with the four major powers surrounding the Korean Peninsula." This caused a great stir at a time when the South Korean government was still advocating "unification by eliminating communism." In 1972, he also proposed that North and South Korea simultaneously join the United Nations and obtain cross-recognition from the international community. In the early 1980s, Kim Dae-jung adjusted the "three-stage unification theory" based on the international situation, proposing to achieve peaceful unification of North and South Korea through three stages: "peaceful coexistence and exchanges—confederation—complete unification." In 1993, Kim Dae-jung visited Germany to study the reunification of Germany, further enriching and perfecting the "three-stage unification theory." Kim Dae-jung's Three-Stage Unification Theory, published in August 1995, proposed a three-stage unification plan of "North-South Union", "Federalism" "a Unified State".^{[6]: 157-159 [12]: 416-417 [7]: 253-256} After 30 years of research, he believed that the "Three-Stage Unification Theory" was correct, so he wanted to be the "Unification President".^{[7]: 254-256}

After Kim Dae-jung took office as president in 1998, the inter-Korean reconciliation policy, known as the Sunshine Policy, was officially implemented. In his inaugural address, Kim Dae-jung proposed three guiding principles for the Sunshine Policy: First, South Korea would never tolerate any military provocations by North Korea that would disrupt peace; second, South Korea had no intention of annexing North Korea to achieve unification; and third, South Korea would expand reconciliation and cooperation with North Korea. On March 26, 1998, at a cabinet meeting chaired by President Kim Dae-jung, South Korean Unification Minister Kang In-deok presented a report on the new "Guidelines for North Korea Policy." The report pointed out that in order to achieve the goal of improving inter-Korean relations through peace, reconciliation and cooperation, the Kim Dae-jung government will implement the following specific policies: First, the North and South must faithfully implement the "Basic Agreement" reached by both sides in December 1991; Second, under the principle of separation of politics and economics, encourage the development of inter-Korean economic cooperation, increase investment in North Korea, and simplify the licensing procedures for economic cooperation; Third, urge the Red Cross to prioritize the reunification of separated families with North Korea, provide government subsidies for reunification expenses for separated families, and simplify the legal procedures for mutual visits; Fourth, help North Korea solve the food shortage problem through the development of agricultural and economic cooperation, as well as humanitarian aid ; Fifth, limit and eliminate weapons of mass destruction such as nuclear weapons and achieve arms control ; Sixth, support North Korea in normalizing relations with the United States, Japan and other Western countries.^[92]: 44

On June 16, 1998, Chung Ju-yung, honorary chairman of Hyundai Group, led 500 cattle through Panmunjom into North Korea, initiating the famous "cattle diplomacy" and opening the prelude to North-South economic cooperation.^[6]: 446 The Sunshine Policy is not a simple policy of tolerance towards North Korea, but rather a policy based on firm security. On June 15, 1999, the North and South engaged in the " First Battle of Yeonpyeong ", with North Korean ships escorting North Korean fishing boats across the North Korean border.^{[6]: 507-509} The two sides eventually engaged in armed combat, resulting in the sinking of one North Korean torpedo boat and damage to one patrol boat. In March 2000, based on the development of North-South civilian exchanges, South Korean Minister of Culture Park Ji-won and North Korean special envoy Song Ho-kyung held their first secret meeting in Singapore. On March 9, Kim Dae-jung, who was visiting Germany, delivered the "Berlin Declaration," urging North-South reconciliation. On April 8 of the same year, the special envoys from the North and South reached a consensus in Beijing on their first summit meeting, namely the "April 8 Agreement".^{[6]: 540-543 [93]}

On June 13, 2000, Kim Dae-jung made an official visit to Pyongyang and held a summit meeting with Kim Jong-il, General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and Chairman of the National Defence Commission. This was the first meeting between the leaders of the two Koreas in more than half a century since the Korean Peninsula was divided. Upon his arrival in Pyongyang, Kim Dae-jung was greeted by Kim Jong-il, Kim Yong-nam, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People 's Assembly, and other North Korean leaders, as well as 600,000 Pyongyang citizens lining the streets to welcome him. From June 13 to 15, Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-il exchanged views frankly on issues such as reconciliation and unification between the two Koreas, family reunification, and bilateral exchanges and cooperation. The two sides reached consensus in all areas and issued the " North-South Joint Declaration " on June 15. The contents of the North-South Joint Declaration include: the North and South will resolve the national reunification on their own; the two sides will promote reunification in the common ground of their respective proposed "federal system" and "confederation system"; through economic cooperation, the national economy will be developed in a balanced way, and cooperation and exchanges in various fields such as society, culture, sports, health, and environment will be strengthened; the two sides will exchange visiting delegations of separated families before August 15; the two sides will hold inter-agency dialogue as soon as possible, and Kim Jong-il will visit South Korea at an appropriate time. The summit between the leaders of North and South Korea was of profound significance and provided an opportunity to create peace on the peninsula.^{[6]: 553-575 [94]} On October 13 of the same year, Kim Dae-jung was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize by the Norwegian Nobel Committee for his outstanding contributions to the cause of peace and democracy on the Korean Peninsula, becoming the first Nobel Prize winner in South Korea.^[23]

However, the historic event was tainted significantly by allegations that at least several hundred million dollars had been paid to North Korea, known as the cash-for-summit scandal. Hyundai transferred $500 million to the North just months before the summit, triggering criticism that the South Korean government paid for the summit. Hyundai claimed the money was a payment for exclusive business rights in electric power facilities, communication lines, an industrial park, cross-border roads and railway lines in North Korea. And in this regard, Park Jie-won was charged with violating domestic laws on foreign exchange trade and inter-Korean cooperation affairs while orchestrating covert money transfers by Hyundai to North Korea. Park played a pivotal role in arranging the first Inter-Korean summit. In May 2006, he was sentenced to three years in prison. Park was released in February 2007, and pardoned in December 2007.^[95] Also to persuade North Korea to attend the summit, several "unconverted long-term prisoners" kept by South Korea were released and returned to North Korea.^[96]

Kim Dae-jung's Sunshine Policy brought about an unprecedented reconciliation between North and South Korea.^[6]: 589 On August 15, 2000, Liberation Day, the two Koreas held a reunion of separated families after 15 years On September 15 of the same year, at the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics, the sports delegations of North and South Korea entered the stadium together for the first time, carrying the flag of the Korean Peninsula.^[6]: 595 On September 24, a 13-member North Korean delegation led by Kim Il-chol, Minister of the People's Armed Forces of North Korea, crossed Panmunjom to participate in the North-South Defense Ministers' Meeting held on Jeju Island. After the meeting, Kim Dae-jung met with Kim Il-chol and his delegation at the Blue House. This was the first time that a North Korean military leader had crossed the Military Demarcation Line and visited the Blue House.^[6]: 597 The Mount Kumgang tourism project of Hyundai Asan Group of South Korea and the Asia-Pacific Peace Committee of North Korea, the Kaesong Industrial Complex, and the North-South railway connection project all began during Kim Dae-jung's administration. The Sunshine Policy also had a very positive impact on North Korea.^[92]: 38 In 2000, North Korea established or resumed diplomatic relations with more than 10 Western countries, including the United Kingdom and Italy.^[97] In 2002, North Korea began a relatively in-depth economic reform. The Sunshine Policy was continued and developed by the Roh Moo-hyun government after Kim Dae-jung. However, in 2003, a scandal was exposed regarding the Kim Dae-jung government's remittance to North Korea through Hyundai Asan before the inter-Korean summit. As a result, Kim Dae-jung's Sunshine Policy was questioned and criticized.^[97] After Lee Myung-bak became the President of South Korea in 2008, the Sunshine Policy was abandoned.^[92]: 137

As a symbol of South Korean democracy, Kim Dae-jung received assistance from the United States on several occasions during the early democratic movement. During his tenure, Kim Dae-jung's policy toward the United States was to strengthen the ROK-US alliance.^[54] Kim Dae-jung believed that the US military presence in South Korea was in the national interest of South Korea and hoped that the status of the US military in South Korea could be equal to that of the US military in Japan. In August 2000, Kim Dae-jung said in an interview with The Washington Post : "Even after the reunification of North and South Korea, the US military presence in Northeast Asia must be maintained. If the US military withdraws, there will be a large power vacuum in the region, which will lead to hostility among the countries in the region for hegemony." Kim Dae-jung's views on the US military presence in South Korea were also understood by Kim Jong-il.^[98] Regarding the anti-American sentiment in South Korea, Kim Dae-jung believed that it should be adjusted and resolved through the principles of reciprocity and peace. Kim Dae-jung also hoped that the United States and North Korea could improve their relations. During Bill Clinton's presidency, the United States gave great support to Kim Dae-jung's Sunshine Policy. The ROK-US relationship improved to an unprecedented level. In October 2000,US President Clinton met with Kim Jong-il's special envoy, Cho Myong-rok, the first vice chairman of the National Defense Commission of North Korea, at the White House in Washington and issued the "US-North Korea Joint Communiqué" declaring that "the two governments will no longer be hostile to each other" and "will establish a new type of relationship that is different from the past hostile relationship".^{[6]: 609 [53]} On October 23 of the same year, then -US Secretary of State Albright visited North Korea at the invitation of Kim Jong-il and met with him to prepare for Clinton's visit to North Korea. At Kim Jong-il's invitation, Clinton originally planned to visit North Korea, but due to being busy with Middle Eastern affairs and the expiration of his term, he was unable to find the time to visit North Korea. On January 20, 2001, the conservative George W. Bush became the US president, and the US-North Korea relationship began to change. In September of the same year, the "9/11" terrorist attacks occurred in the United States. Bush listed North Korea as part of the "axis of evil," and relations between the United States and North Korea reached another extreme In order to repair the broken relationship between North Korea and the United States, Kim Dae-jung did his best to eliminate the gap between the Sunshine Policy and the "axis of evil".^{[6]: 675-677} In October 2003, Bush sent the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Affairs to North Korea to show that the United States treated North Korea differently than Iraq. However, North Korea took a tough stance against the US envoy, announcing that it possessed highly enriched uranium and claiming that this was to contain the US military threat. At the same time, North Korea hoped to reconcile with the United States through negotiations. However, the United States insisted that North Korea would give up its nuclear weapons before dialogue would take place.^{[6]: 694-695}

While strengthening the ROK-US alliance, Kim Dae-jung also worked to improve relations with Japan. ROK and Japan formally established diplomatic relations on June 22, 1965. At that time, South Korean President Park Chung-hee was eager to obtain funds and technology from Japan to develop the economy. Without resolving historical issues, he signed the Treaty on Basic Relations between ROK and Japan despite strong domestic opposition.^[99] Despite that, ROK-Japan relations did not develop smoothly. In 1998, Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi put forward the political view that "what happened in the 20th century should be resolved in the 20th century" and invited Kim Dae-jung to visit Japan. In October of the same year, during his visit to Japan, Kim Dae-jung signed the Joint Declaration on the ROK-Japan Partnership, which established a new type of partnership for the 21st century. For the first time, Japan expressed "deep remorse and apology" to ROK on historical issues in the form of a joint declaration. South Korea agreed to lift the ban on imports of Japanese cultural products in three phases over five years.^[100][101] South Korea and Japan also signed a new South Korea-Japan Fisheries Agreement, which improved bilateral relations. In 2002, South Korea and Japan jointly hosted the World Cup. Kim Dae-jung and Prime Minister of Japan Junichiro Koizumi attended the opening ceremony in Seoul and delivered speeches. On June 30 of the same year, Kim Dae-jung attended the closing ceremony of the World Cup in Japan. Kim Dae-jung and his wife also watched the final match accompanied by the Emperor and Empress of Japan. 2002 was called the "Year of Japan-South Korea Exchange".^{[102][6]: 460-461} The holding of the South Korea-Japan World Cup became an important historical event in the development of South Korea-Japan relations. While advocating for the improvement of relations between the United States and North Korea, Kim Dae-jung also hoped that Japan would improve relations with North Korea. On September 17, 2002, then Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited North Korea and signed the Japan-North Korea Pyongyang Declaration with Kim Jong-il.^[92]: 212

Kim Dae-jung visited China many times and was called an "old friend of the Chinese people" by the Chinese government.^[103] Kim Dae-jung’s first visit to China was in 1994 when he attended the opening ceremony of the Pacific Academic Symposium at the invitation of the Chinese Institute of Foreign Affairs. On 2 November 1994, during his visit to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Kim Dae-jung was awarded the title of "Honorary Research Professor of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences".^{[7]: 303-304 [104]} On November 12, 1998, at the invitation of Jiang Zemin, then General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee and President of China, Kim Dae-jung visited China for the first time as President of the Republic of Korea. During the visit, Kim Dae-jung and Jiang Zemin announced that the relationship between South Korea and China would be upgraded from the "friendly and cooperative relationship" established when the two countries established diplomatic relations six years ago to a "South Korea-China partnership for the 21st century".^[105] This was a milestone in the history of the development of relations between the two countries.^{[106][107][108]} During Kim Dae-jung’s tenure, the economic and trade development between South Korea and China continued the growth momentum since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. In 2002, the last year of Kim Dae-jung's term and the tenth anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, bilateral trade between South Korea and China reached US$31.5 billion, five times that at the beginning of the establishment of diplomatic relations. South Korea and China became each other's third largest trading partners. China also became the largest destination for South Korea's foreign investment. On the Korean Peninsula issue, the government of the People's Republic of China supported the reconciliation between North and South Korea. The Kim Dae-jung government also supported the People's Republic of China's accession to the WTO.^[109]

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia actively developed bilateral relations with South Korea in order to obtain economic assistance and cooperation from South Korea. During Kim Dae-jung's administration, the two countries continued to consolidate their friendly relations, and bilateral cooperation in the economic, technological and military fields continued to expand. In 1999, Kim Dae-jung made a state visit to Russia, and the two sides issued a joint statement on further developing a comprehensive and complementary partnership. In the same year, the Russian Minister of Defense visited South Korea, and the two sides decided to hold regular mutual visits between military leaders and consultation meetings on defense policy.^[110] On February 26, 2001, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited South Korea. The two countries reached agreements on a number of political and economic cooperation agreements and issued a joint statement. The two sides decided to hold regular high-level meetings of the president, prime minister and speaker of parliament to further develop the complementary partnership between the two countries. Russia supports further reconciliation between North and South Korea and the realization of peace on the Korean Peninsula. In 2001, the two countries signed the "Draft Agreement on South Korea-Russia Space Technology Cooperation". Russia will help South Korea build a launch station that can launch its own satellites (in May 2004, South Korea became the second country in the world, after Russia, to have the technology of vertical launch from a missile launch pad). The two countries also cooperate extensively in the joint development of Siberian resources. In addition, the Kim Dae-jung government proposed a blueprint for building a "steel Silk Road", planning to build a Eurasian land bridge from Busan, South Korea through North Korea to Europe (Kim Dae-jung had reached an agreement with North Korea on reconnecting the Korean Peninsula through the Gyeongui Line during the first inter-Korean summit in June 2000).^[111] This idea was put back on the agenda during Putin’s visit to South Korea in 2013.^[112]

Kim Dae-jung strongly supported the democratic cause in Myanmar and opposed the suppression of the independence of East Timor. On August 30, 1999, East Timor held a referendum under the supervision of the United Nations, and 78.5% of East Timor residents supported independence. In response, armed groups supported by the Indonesian military carried massacres in East Timor. Kim Dae-jung was extremely indignant about this human rights abuse. At the APEC summit held in Auckland, New Zealand on September 13, Kim Dae-jung lobbied the heads of state of the United States, Japan, China and other countries. On the eve of the closing of the conference, the leaders of South Korea (Kim Dae-jung), the United States (Bill Clinton ) and Japan (Keizo Obuchi) issued a statement supporting the independence of East Timor and demanding that the United Nations and Indonesia make a positive response. Kim Dae-jung also pressured the Indonesian finance minister attending the conference, demanding that the Indonesian government come up with a solution, otherwise he would mobilize all the heads of state attending the conference to issue an APEC statement. After midnight that night, the bloody crackdown in East Timor stopped. After the APEC meeting, the United Nations Evergreen Force began to enter East Timor, and South Korea also sent troops to support the operation.^{[6]: 528-529} Later, the Evergreen Force was called "messengers of peace" by the East Timorese people, and the largest main road in the center of East Timor was named "Road of Korean Friends". When the vice president of the East Timorese Resistance Association visited the Blue House, he told Kim Dae-jung: "After Indonesia occupied East Timor, nearly 200,000 of its citizens lost their lives. If it weren't for President Kim, I'm afraid another 100,000 people would have lost their lives."^[6]: 607

Regarding the human rights issue in Myanmar, Kim Dae-jung once wrote a joint letter with 100 members of parliament and wrote two personal letters to the Myanmar military government to protest and support Aung San Suu Kyi. In 1998, when then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan came to South Korea to receive the Seoul Peace Prize, Kim Dae-jung also urged the United Nations to play a greater role in the Myanmar issue In November 1999, during the ASEAN+3 meeting in Manila, Kim Dae-jung met with then Myanmar Prime Minister Than Shwe and persuaded the Myanmar military government to have a dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi. Kim Dae-jung also actively developed relations with neighboring Asia-Pacific countries and discussed with leaders of Asia-Pacific countries how to deal with the financial crisis and maintain democracy and human rights in the Asia-Pacific region at international conferences in the Asia-Pacific region. During his presidency, Kim Dae-jung visited Malaysia, Vietnam, Mongolia, New Zealand and Australia, the Philippines, Brunei, Singapore and Indonesia.^{[6]: 527 [6]: 617}

The Kim Dae-jung government maintained good relations with the European Union and actively promoted the improvement of relations between the EU and North Korea. On October 20, 2000, South Korea hosted the Third Asia-Europe Meeting as the host country. 26 leaders from Asian and European countries attended the meeting and adopted the "2000 Asia-Europe Cooperation Framework" and the "Seoul Declaration on Peace on the Korean Peninsula".^{[6]: 609-612} The United Kingdom was the first EU country to establish diplomatic relations with South Korea. On March 19, 1998, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip of the United Kingdom visited South Korea. This was the first visit by the British royal family to South Korea in 100 years since the signing of the Treaty of Amity and Commerce between the two countries in 1883.^{[6]: 496-497} During Kim Dae-jung's visit to the UK in December 2000, he was awarded the Order of St. Michael and St. George (GCMG) by Queen Elizabeth and Cambridge University also awarded him an honorary doctorate in law. After his visit to the UK, Kim Dae-jung made state visits to Norway and Hungary and attended the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. Kim Dae-jung was the first Asian leader to deliver a speech at the European Parliament. The following year, the South Korea-EU summit began to be held regularly.^[6]: 669

After the establishment of the Kim Dae-jung government in 1998, the first foreign leader to visit was German President Herzog. Germany affirmed and supported Kim Dae-jung's measures to deal with the Asian financial crisis and his Sunshine Policy towards North Korea.^[6]: 456 During his visit to Germany in March 2000, Kim Dae-jung issued the Berlin Declaration urging reconciliation between North and South Korea, which played a key role in facilitating the first inter-Korean summit.^{[6]: 540-541} During this visit to Europe, Kim Dae-jung also visited Italy, the Vatican and France. Kim Dae-jung was the first South Korean president to visit Rome. He and his wife met with Pope John Paul II. During his visit to France, Kim Dae-jung proposed to French President Chirac that the two countries jointly build a "trans-Eurasian information network" so that Asia and Europe could become "network neighbors" through the "Silk Road of Light Speed".^{[6]: 645-646}

On March 21, 2001, former South African President Nelson Mandela visited South Korea. Mandela and Kim Dae-jung had similar experiences, both winning the Nobel Peace Prize at the age of 75. When Kim Dae-jung ran for president for the last time, Mandela gave him the watch that had accompanied him for 27 years in prison. During his visit to South Korea, Mandela expressed his support for Kim Dae-jung's Sunshine Policy. The two issued an "Initiative for World Peace and Prosperity", deciding to work together for world peace and democracy, to protect human rights and to eliminate poverty.^{[6]: 645-646}

After Kim achieved the presidency and moved into the Blue House, there was uncertainty and considerable speculation about how he would deal with previous presidents: he had been sentenced to death under Chun Doo-hwan, Roh Tae-woo was Chun's number two and Kim Young-sam had been his political rival.

However, in December 1997 as president-elect, he advised outgoing president Kim Young-sam to pardon Chun and Roh who were imprisoned in 1996, in the spirit of national unity. Both Roh and Chun would attend Kim's inauguration ceremony in February 1998. Early in his term Kim invited Chun and Roh, both of whom attempted to have him killed, to the Blue House and refrained from seeking political vengeance. Subsequently, Kim organized gatherings with the former presidents to seek advice, an unprecedented move. After coming back from overseas visits, he invited them to the Blue House to explain the outcomes.^[113] During Kim's final days on his deathbed, the former presidents visited him and Chun met Lee Hee-ho, Kim's wife and former first lady, and recounted Kim's display of magnanimity towards him, even though he had once had him put on death row. On 10 August 2009, eight days before his death, Kim was visited by his predecessor and rival Kim Young-sam. Next Day, President Lee Myung-bak also visited at the hospital.^[113]

When he entered office, he appointed Kim Jong-pil, formerly part of the Park Chung Hee dictatorship and Park's prime minister, as his first prime minister in return for Jong-pil endorsing his candidacy in a power-sharing agreement before the 1997 election. Kim's National Congress for New Politics, and Jong-pil's United Liberal Democrats (ULD) formed a coalition, but did not have a majority in the National Assembly.^[114] Instead, the now opposition Grand National Party (GNP) of Lee Hoi-chang held a majority. During the first six months in 1998, most of the 100 major reform measures failed to materialize due to the lack of the legislative support and partisan compromise. It was only in September 1998 that the ruling coalition secured a majority in the National Assembly by enticing a large number of opposition GNP lawmakers to defect.^[114] Up to 25 GNP deputies left the party to join the governing coalition, after arm-twisting tactics by the government by launching corruption, campaign finance and tax audit investigations on them.^[115] The ULD and Kim Jong-pil subsequently left the coalition to join the opposition in January 2000, following disagreement with President Kim's North Korea policy and the failure of the president to uphold his deal with Jong-pil to introduce a cabinet-style government.^[116]

President Kim sought to remake his party into a national broad-based party instead of a base on regional appeal, and introduce multi-member parliamentary constituencies, with the ULD. However, Kim agreed with the GNP to implement a parallel voting system like in Japan, and the agreement collapsed amidst protests from civic groups.^[117] Thus the existing system was retained. In 1999, the Furgate scandal damaged Kim Dae-jung and his party's reputation.^{[118][119][120]} Also, in spite of his background as a democratic reformer, Kim was accused of being vindictive towards political opponents and even journalists critical of his government, as seen when government agencies used strong-arm tactics against the opposition or reporters via politically motivated investigations along with accusations of spying on the opposition. Kim's administration included more individuals from Jeolla, which led to charges of reverse discrimination. Many citizens, in the middle of his term, also did not feel that the economic recovery benefitted them. Finally, conservatives accused Kim of being an appeaser towards North Korea with his Sunshine Policy.^[121]

These factors, led to National Congress, now renamed as the Millennium Democratic Party to suffer a setback as the party fell short behind the Grand National Party in the National Assembly during the 2000 South Korean legislative election. The decision to announce an inter-Korean summit 3 days before the election is said to have somewhat limited the governing party's losses as 79.6% of respondents in an opinion poll approved of the summit. Kim appointed Lee Han-dong, ULD president, as the new prime minister in a bid to mend fences and continue a governing majority against the GNP.^[121] Later, the ULD left the coalition for good in September 2001. ULD members sided with the GNP to pass a vote of no-confidence by 148 to 119 votes against key Cabinet member, Unification Minister Lim Dong-won, who was in charge of the Kim government's Sunshine Policy with North Korea.^[122] President Kim effectively became a lame duck, and the political leverage that he had accumulated thanks to his summit diplomacy came to an abrupt end. Economic reform plans and engagement policies pursued by the administration simultaneously achieved mixed results until the end of his term one and a half years later.

According to South Korean political tradition, the president does not participate in politics after leaving office. Kim Dae-jung also said in his farewell speech that he hoped to live a peaceful life after leaving office. However, Kim Dae-jung's later years after leaving office were not peaceful. Kim Dae-jung's second son, Kim Hong-yeop, and third son, Kim Hong-geol, were arrested and sentenced for bribery at the end of his term, and his eldest son, Kim Hong-il, a member of the National Assembly of the Democratic Party, was also prosecuted for suspected bribery shortly after he left office.^[123] In addition, Kim Dae-jung's " Sunshine Policy " was severely criticized by the conservative forces in South Korea and was even ridiculed as a "pay-back policy".^[124] On March 15, 2003, Roh Moo-hyun announced a special bill on the "North Korea remittance incident". Kim Dae-jung believed that "this issue should not be subject to judicial review" and was willing to take full responsibility. Kim Dae-jung explained the "remittance incident to North Korea" in his autobiography as follows: "When a rich brother visits a poor brother, how can he go empty-handed? But the government directly provides aid to North Korea, which is indeed a legal problem. I had to provide aid to North Korea through the Hyundai Group." At that time, apart from one member who supported the investigation, the other members of the South Korean State Council also opposed Roh Moo-hyun’s approach. However, under Roh Moo-hyun’s insistence, the "special investigation" conducted a thorough investigation of banks, companies and government personnel. The core figures of Kim Dae-jung’s government, former Minister of Unification Lim Dong- won, former Chief of Staff of the President Park Ji-won and former Chief Secretary for Economic Affairs of the President Lee Ki-ho, were arrested and prosecuted one after another. Chung Mong -hun, then chairman of the Hyundai Group, committed suicide by jumping off a building in his office, which brought a huge shock to South Korean society.^{[6]: 710-711 [123]}

On January 29, 2004, Kim Dae-jung attended the retrial of the "Kim Dae-jung internal strife conspiracy incident," and was acquitted of the death sentence he had been sentenced to more than 23 years earlier. On September 24 of the same year, the Seoul High Court ruled that the South Korean government should pay Kim Dae-jung 94.9 million won in state compensation to compensate him for the economic and mental losses he suffered from being wrongfully imprisoned from May 18, 1980 to November 22, 1982.^{[6]: 715-716 [125]}

After stepping down, Kim Dae-jung received numerous invitations to visit from countries around the world. On May 10, 2004, Kim Dae-jung visited France, Norway and Switzerland at the invitation of the European Union. This was his first overseas trip after stepping down. During this trip to the three European countries, he delivered keynote speeches at the "2004 OECD Forum" held in France, the Nobel Institute in Oslo, Norway and the "57th World Health Assembly" held in Geneva, Switzerland. On June 29 of the same year, Kim Dae-jung visited China at the invitation of the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin, then Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the CCP. On November 6 of the same year, Kim Dae-jung also visited Sweden and Rome, Italy at the invitation of the Swedish Prime Minister and the Mayor of Rome.^{[6]: 716-718} On May 12, 2007, Kim Dae-jung was awarded the first "Freedom Prize" by the Free University of Berlin and visited Germany. On September 17 of the same year, Kim Dae-jung visited Washington and New York at the invitation of former US President Clinton. During his visit, Kim Dae-jung also held talks with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, former US Secretaries of State Kissinger, Albright, Powell, and former US Treasury Secretary (President of Citibank) Robert Rubin.^{[6]: 730-731}

In 2005, on the fifth anniversary of Kim Dae-jung's Nobel Peace Prize, Kim Dae-jung invited former German President Richard von Weizsäcker and his wife to visit South Korea. Kim Dae-jung and Weizsäcker held a special dialogue entitled "The Experience of German Reunification and the Korean Peninsula". The special dialogue was chaired by Professor Han Sang-jin of Seoul National University. KBS broadcast the dialogue at the end of the year.^[6]: 721 On June 14, 2006, Kim Dae -jung attended the opening ceremony of the National Reunification Grand Ceremony on the sixth anniversary of the publication of the North-South Joint Declaration at the Gwangju World Cup Football Stadium. The next day, Kim Dae-jung attended the Gwangju Conference of Nobel Prize laureates. This was the first time the conference had been held outside of Rome since it was first held in 1999.^[6]: 724

In April 2008, Kim Dae-jung visited Portland and Boston in the United States. On the 20th, he gave a speech entitled "Sunshine Policy is the Road to Success" at the Kennedy School of Harvard University.^[126] In September of the same year, Kim Dae-jung attended the "Nobel Peace Prize" summit held in Stavanger, Norway, and gave a speech entitled "The Power of Dialogue - Mutualism Dialogue with Common Interests as the Goal".^{[6]: 742-744} On October 26, Kim Dae-jung was invited to attend the "Northeast Asia Regional Development and Cooperation Forum" held in Shenyang. Afterwards, he visited Dandong City, which is separated from the Korean Peninsula by a river. On May 4, 2009, Kim Dae-jung visited China again at the invitation of the Foreign Affairs College and met with Xi Jinping, then Vice President of China, at the Great Hall of the People.^{[6]: 750-751}

Roh Moo-hyun, who succeeded Kim Dae-jung as president, held him in high esteem. Although their relationship was sometimes tense, it was very close.^[127] On May 23, 2009, when Kim Dae-jung learned of Roh Moo-hyun's suicide, he said, "It feels like half of my body has collapsed." On May 28, when Kim Dae-jung and his wife paid their respects to Roh Moo-hyun at the Seoul Station funeral parlor in a wheelchair, Kim Dae-jung said, "If I were subjected to the same insults, setbacks, and despair as former President Roh Moo-hyun, I would probably make the same choice.. That's how the world is; sometimes it's cloudy, but sometimes it's sunny. If even brave people can't bear it, how can it be.^[128] The prosecution investigated Roh Moo-hyun, including himself, his wife, and all his relatives without missing a single one, but until Roh Moo-hyun's death, the prosecution still couldn't produce any conclusive evidence." At the funeral service held the next day, Kim Dae-jung held the hand of Roh Moo-hyun's widow, Kwon Yang-sook, and wept bitterly. He also told reporters that he had intended to deliver a eulogy at the funeral service, but the government prevented him from doing so.^[129][130] At the ninth anniversary of the June 15 North-South Joint Declaration, Kim Dae-jung said that he and Roh Moo-hyun were "like brothers in a previous life" and accused the current government of being a "dictatorship".^[127]

After Kim Dae-jung stepped down, his health deteriorated. In 2003, he underwent coronary artery dilation surgery and had to undergo kidney hemodialysis three times a week after the surgery. In 2005, Kim Dae-jung was hospitalized twice for pulmonary edema and was frequently in and out of the hospital afterward. In early 2009, Kim Dae-jung's health was already very poor, and he could only attend the farewell ceremony of the late President Roh Moo-hyun in a wheelchair. There was even an ambulance on standby at the scene in case of emergency. On July 13, 2009, Kim Dae-jung was admitted to the intensive care unit of Severance Hospital in Sinchon due to pneumonia ; on August 18, Kim Dae-jung's condition deteriorated rapidly, and he died despite all efforts to save him at the age of 85.^[131][132]

Kim died on 18 August 2009, at 13:43 KST, at Severance Hospital of Yonsei University in Seoul aged 85 years old, three months after his successor Roh Moo-hyun.^[133] He was first admitted to hospital suffering from pneumonia on 13 July. The cause of death was cardiac arrest caused by multiple organ dysfunction syndrome.^[134] An interfaith state funeral was held for him on 23 August 2009, in front of the National Assembly Building, with a procession leading to the Seoul National Cemetery where he was interred according to Catholic traditions, near former presidents Syngman Rhee and Park Chung Hee as well. He is the second person in South Korean history to be given a state funeral after Park Chung Hee. It was attended by President Lee Myung-bak, First Lady Kim Yoon-ok, former presidents Chun Doo-hwan, Kim Young-sam, former first Lady Kwon Yang-sook, and members of National Assembly. However, former President Roh Tae-woo and former Prime Minister Kim Jong-pil were absent.^[135] North Korea sent a delegation to his funeral.^[136]

The day after Kim Dae-jung's death, in consideration of his great contributions to the country and the nation, the Lee Myung-bak government decided to hold a six-day state funeral for him. During the state funeral, the national flag was flown at half-mast throughout South Korea. This was the first state funeral held in South Korea in thirty years since the state funeral held for Park Chung-hee after his assassination in 1979, and it was also the first state funeral held for a former president.^{[137][138][139]} The funeral committee consisted of 2,371 people from the political, educational, religious and economic circles of South Korea, as well as relatives recommended by the bereaved family. It was the largest state funeral in South Korean history. The chairman of the funeral committee was Han Seung-soo, the then Prime Minister of South Korea.^[140]

At 2 p.m. on August 23, 2009, Kim Dae-jung’s funeral was held in the front yard of the National Assembly of South Korea. More than 30,000 people attended, including Kim Dae-jung’s widow Lee Hee-ho and other relatives, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and his wife Kim Yoon-ok, former President Kim Young-sam, ambassadors and representatives from various countries to South Korea, and South Korean citizens.^[141] Former Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan, former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and former Speaker of the House of Representatives of Japan Kono Yohei, and other dignitaries from various countries came to pay their respects on behalf of their respective governments.^[142] Kim Jong-il, General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea, sent a telegram of condolence to Kim Dae-jung’s family after Kim Dae-jung’s death.^[141] On August 21, a North Korean delegation led by Kim Ki-nam, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, paid their respects at Kim Dae-jung’s funeral hall and offered condolences to Kim Dae-jung’s family. The funeral lasted about ninety minutes. In his eulogy, Prime Minister Han Seung-soo said, "His Excellency the President dedicated his life to democracy, human rights, peace and national reconciliation. His legacy will be remembered forever as part of our glorious history." After the funeral, Kim Dae-jung’s coffin was moved to the Seoul National Cemetery for burial. The hearse passed by landmarks in the city, including the Yeouido Democratic Party headquarters, the Donggyo-dong private residence (which has been expanded into the "Kim Dae-jung Peace Center"), Gwanghwamun Sejong Crossing, Seoul Plaza, and Seoul Station. Hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets to bid farewell to Kim Dae-jung, creating a very moving scene.

In February 2003, Yonsei University converted the headquarters building of the Asia Pacific Peace Foundation, donated by Kim Dae-jung, into the Kim Dae-jung Library.^[11] This is the first presidential library in South Korea. The library is managed by the Institute for Unification Studies at Yonsei University. The library houses the Nobel Peace Prize medals won by Kim Dae-jung, photos of Kim Dae-jung, his personal belongings, and tens of thousands of books donated by Kim Dae-jung, related to Kim Dae-jung, and books on the unification of the Korean Peninsula added by Yonsei University.^[143][144]

The Kim Dae-jung Memorial Hall has been built in Mokpo, Kim Dae-jung 's hometown.^[145] A bronze statue of Kim Dae-jung stands in front of the library of Mokpo First High School, Kim Dae-jung's alma mater. The Kim Dae-jung Conference Center in Gwangju Metropolitan City, South Korea, and the Kim Dae-jung Bridge connecting Sinan County and Muan County in Jeollanam-do are named after Kim Dae-jung.^[146][147]

In August 2010, on the first anniversary of Kim Dae-jung's death, the Korean Three People Publishing House published "Kim Dae-jung's Autobiography", which had a great impact in South Korea.^[145] As soon as the book was released, 80,000 copies were sold out. Japan's NHK television station once filmed a documentary entitled "Kim Dae-jung's Autobiography Dedicated to the Japanese People" during Kim Dae-jung's lifetime. The film achieved the second highest viewership rating for a documentary since the establishment of NHK.^[25]: 173 In 2002, the film " KT ", which was co-produced by Japan and South Korea and was about the kidnapping of Kim Dae-jung, was nominated for the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin International Film Festival.^[148]

Kim Dae-jung's first wife was Cha Yong-ae. The two married on April 9, 1945, and had two sons, Kim Hong-il and Kim Hong-yeop.^{[9]: 36 [11]} Kim Dae-jung's second wife was Lee Hee-ho. The two married on May 10, 1962, two years after Cha Yong-ae's death, and had one son, Kim Hong-jae. During Kim Dae-jung's imprisonment for opposing the dictatorship, his eldest son, Kim Hong-il, was arrested and tortured by the authorities, and his waist was injured; his second son, Kim Hong-yeop, was detained and interrogated by the authorities; and his youngest son, Kim Hong-jae, was still in high school at the time and was spared persecution.^{[12]: 85-103 [9]: 68-72} All three of Kim Dae-jung's sons were sentenced for bribery, and two of them were arrested. Kim Dae-jung apologized to the nation five times for this, and on May 6, 2002, he announced his withdrawal from the ruling New Millennium Democratic Party.^{[25]: 12 [149][150]}

• Kim Hong-il, the eldest son, was a former member of the National Assembly of South Korea. In 2006, he was sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for three years, for bribery. He was also removed from his position as a member of parliament.^[149] Kim Hong-il suffers from Parkinson's disease.^[151] Some believe that his illness is a sequela of the severe torture he suffered at the hands of the authorities in the 1980s. Because of his physical limitations, Kim Hong-il was exempted from detention.^[152]
• The second son, Kim Hong-yeop, was the vice chairman of the Asia-Pacific Peace Foundation.^[153] In 2003, he was sentenced to two years in prison and fined 660 million won for bribery and tax evasion. He was pardoned in August 2005.^[154] In April 2007, Kim Hong-yeop was re-elected as a member of the National Assembly in a by-election, but lost the election in the 2008 National Assembly election.^[152]
• The third son, Kim Hong-jae, studied at the University of Southern California and later worked as a researcher at the Pacific Institute of Parmona University.^[155] In 2002, Kim Hong-jae was sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for three years, and fined 200 million won for bribery and tax evasion.^[156] In August 2005, on the 60th anniversary of Korea's liberation, Kim Hong-jae was pardoned by the South Korean government.^[154]

On his 85th birthday, Kim Dae-jung wrote in his diary how he evaluated his life:^[124]

Looking back, it was a magnificent life. A life dedicated to the struggle for democracy, a life devoted to saving the economy and opening the path to North-South reconciliation. Although my life was not perfect, I have no regrets.

During his presidency, he introduced South Korea's contemporary welfare state,^{[157][158][159]} successfully shepherded the country's economic recovery, brought in a new era of competitive and transparent economy and fostered a greater role for South Korea in the world stage, including the FIFA World Cup, jointly hosted by South Korea and Japan in 2002. South Korea also became more democratic as a society, wired to the Internet, and based on a knowledge-intensive infrastructure. A presidential library at Yonsei University was built to preserve Kim's legacy,^[160] and there is a convention center named after him in the city of Gwangju, the Kim Dae-jung Convention Center.^[161]

Kim Dae-jung spent most of his life fighting for democracy in South Korea. For this, he was imprisoned several times, spent six years in prison, went into exile twice, and faced death threats five times. In February 1998, Kim Dae-jung entered the Blue House and successfully achieved the first peaceful transfer of power between the ruling and opposition parties in the constitutional history of South Korea.^[162] Many South Koreans believe that after Park Chung-hee led the industrialization process of South Korea, Kim Dae-jung led the democratization of South Korean society. Some South Korean scholars believe that with the passing of Kim Dae-jung, South Korean society has bid farewell to the "first stage of modernization".^[124] After Kim Dae-jung's death, then-South Korean President Lee Myung-bak praised him as "a tireless fighter for democracy in his career". The Times Weekly said: "For eighty-five years, from the poor to the president, Kim Dae-jung illuminated the night sky of South Korea with his life story, reflecting the transformation of South Korea from autocracy to democracy." The New York Times called him "the Asian Mandela". ^[30] The Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun called Kim Dae-jung's departure the end of the "era of giants" in South Korean politics and believed that he would be more remembered in history than any previous South Korean president. ^[163]

At the beginning of Kim Dae-jung's term, the Asian financial crisis swept through South Korea. Through reforms in four major areas—business, finance, public sector, and labor-management—Kim Dae-jung led the South Korean people to overcome the crisis in a very short time and realized the transformation of the South Korean economy from exporting low-end products to a high-tech economy centered on information. Kim Dae-jung was widely recognized by the international community in this regard.^[164] A public opinion poll conducted by the Dong-A Ilbo on Kim Dae-jung's five-year performance at the time of his resignation showed that overcoming the financial crisis was recognized by the South Korean people as Kim Dae-jung's greatest achievement. ^[165][165]

Kim Dae-jung is a pioneer of reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula. As early as the 1970s, when the Cold War between East and West and the confrontation between North and South Korea were tense, he proposed a plan for the unification of the Korean Peninsula with great courage. In 1997, after Kim Dae-jung became President of South Korea, he implemented the " Sunshine Policy ", which promoted the improvement of relations between North and South Korea and the easing of the situation on the peninsula. In June 2000, Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-il held the first inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang and issued the " North-South Joint Declaration ". During the five years of Kim Dae-jung's administration, exchanges and cooperation between North and South Korea on the Korean Peninsula have achieved visible improvement and development. In 2000, Kim Dae-jung was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his contributions to the peaceful development of the Korean Peninsula. ^[165]

During Kim Dae-jung’s administration, South Korea successfully hosted the 1999 Asian Winter Games, the Third Asia-Europe Summit, the 2002 FIFA World Cup and the 2002 Asian Games, which effectively enhanced South Korea’s international status and prestige and improved relations with neighboring countries. The achievements of Kim Dae-jung’s administration, such as enterprise privatization, improvement of the national annual salary system, improvement of women’s status, improvement of the medical and health care system, reform of the tax system and stabilization of housing prices, have also been well received by the South Korean people. A Gallup Korea poll in October 2021 showed Kim, Roh Moo-hyun, and Park Chung Hee as the most highly rated presidents of South Korean history in terms of leaving a positive legacy.^[166] However, compared to Roh and Park, Kim attracted an absolute majority of positive opinions amongst all age groups, with the highest support among citizens in the 40-49 age range.^[165]

A poll showed that 33% of people believed that the failure to combat corruption and the improper appointment of personnel were the biggest mistakes during Kim Dae-jung's administration.^[165] Kim Dae-jung took office with a strong anti-corruption campaign. From September 1999 to June 2000, the Kim Dae-jung government investigated 2,246 suspected corrupt officials and detained 810. In a report released by the U.S. Department of Commerce in 2000 on the implementation of the OECD Protocol on the Prevention of Bribery, the Kim Dae-jung government's anti-corruption efforts were highly praised, and South Korea was called one of the model member countries.^[167] During his administration, Kim Dae-jung advocated preventing corruption at its source by reforming regulations and systems. In 2001, after six years of preparation, the National Assembly of South Korea passed the Corruption Prevention Act, which further expanded the scope of those who register and disclose property, strengthened the review of property disclosure, and enhanced the independence of the judiciary. ^[167][168] Kim Dae-jung himself was also honest and incorruptible throughout his life. According to Yonhap News Agency, Kim Dae-jung's estate was only 1.2 billion won after his death.^[169] Kim Dae-jung had strongly criticized the case of former President Kim Young-sam 's son being imprisoned for bribery. However, during Kim Dae-jung's term, his three sons were prosecuted or arrested for suspected bribery or tax evasion. This can be said to be the "greatest tragedy in the later years" of this anti-corruption president. Before leaving office, Kim Dae-jung also publicly stated that his biggest regret during his five years in office was that he had not disciplined his children well.^[164] In addition, many high-ranking officials in Kim Dae-jung's government were also prosecuted for corruption. The fact that Kim Dae-jung's confidants transferred money to North Korea through the Hyundai Group before the first inter-Korean summit also led to criticism of Kim Dae-jung's " Sunshine Policy ".^[123][170]

• Portrayed by Hwang In-shik in the 1989 MBC TV series The Second Republic.^[171]
• Portrayed by Baek Yoon-sik in the 1993 MBC TV series The Third Republic.^[171]
• Portrayed by Choi Min-sik in the 1995 MBC TV series The Fourth Republic.^[171]
• Portrayed by Min-wook in the 1995 SBS TV series Koreagate.
• Portrayed by Yu In-chon in the 1998 SBS TV series The Three Kims Period.^[172]
• Portrayed by Han Yeong-su in the 2002–2003 SBS TV series Rustic Period.
• Portrayed by Kim In-mun in the 2002 film Fun Movie.
• Portrayed by Choi Il-hwa in the 2002 film KT.
• Portrayed by Song Yang-gyu in the 2003 film Dying or Live) inspired the character under the name Pizza restaurant owner.^[173]
• Portrayed by Kim Dong-seok in the 2004–2005 MBC TV series The Age of Heroes.
• Portrayed by Lim Dong-jin in the 2005 MBC TV series 5th Republic.^[171]
• Voiced by Lee Cheol-yong (2008)^[174] and Kim Myung-soo in the MBC Standard FM radio drama 50 Years of Turbulence).
• Portrayed by Sul Kyung-gu in the 2022 film Kingmaker inspired^:the character under the name Kim Woon-beom.

• Liberalism in South Korea
• Cash-for-summit scandal
• KT

• Kim Dae-jung on Nobelprize.org
• Kim Dae-jung Presidential Library
• Appearances on C-SPAN