53 Facts About Kim Dae-jung

Kim Dae-jung 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.

Kim Dae-jung is the only Korean to have won the Nobel Prize to date.

Kim Dae-jung was sometimes referred to as "the Nelson Mandela of Asia".

Kim Dae-jung was a 12th generation descendant of Kim Dae-jung Ik-soo who served as Second Minister of the Board of War and the civil minister who involved at the construction of Gwansanggam during Joseon period.

Kim Dae-jung was born in Sinan County, South Jeolla in what was then South Jeolla Province; the city is in Jeollanam-do.

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

Kim Dae-jung had to change his name to Toyota Taichu because of the passing of the soshi-kaimei ordinance.

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

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

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

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

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

Kim Dae-jung was briefly arrested, before having his rights restored.

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

Kim Dae-jung was able to win a seat in the House in the subsequent elections in 1963 and 1967 and went on to become an eminent opposition leader.

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

Kim Dae-jung promised a welfare-oriented "mass economy" and advocated easing tensions with North Korea, while predicting correctly that if Park was reelected, he would become a "generalissimo".

One month later after the presidential election, while Kim Dae-jung was campaigning for legislative elections, a truck turned directly into the path of his car and seriously injured him and his two aides.

Kim Dae-jung was almost killed in August 1973, when he was kidnapped from a hotel in Tokyo by KCIA agents in response to his criticism of President Park's yushin program, which granted near-dictatorial powers.

Years later, Kim Dae-jung reflected on these events during his 2000 Nobel Peace Prize lecture:.

Kim Dae-jung was returned to South Korea, then put under house arrest and banned from politics.

Kim Dae-jung was imprisoned in 1976 for having participated in the proclamation of an anti-government manifesto and sentenced for five years in prison, which was reduced to house arrest in December 1978.

Kim Dae-jung had his political rights briefly restored in December 1979 by acting President Choi Kyu-hah after Park was assassinated, shortly before the Coup d'etat of December Twelfth by Major General Chun Doo-hwan.

On 30 March 1983, Kim Dae-jung 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.

Kim Dae-jung was elected to the National Assembly in 1988 and 1992.

In 1992, Kim Dae-jung made yet another failed bid for the presidency, this time solely against Kim Dae-jung Young-sam, who had merged the RDP with the ruling Democratic Justice Party to form the Democratic Liberal Party in 1990, which eventually became the Grand National Party.

Kim Dae-jung then departed for the United Kingdom to take a position at Clare Hall, Cambridge, as a visiting scholar.

Ex-presidents Park Chung Hee, Chun Doo-hwan, Roh Tae-woo, and Kim Dae-jung Young-sam originated from the Gyeongsang 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, 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.

However, upon his election, Kim Dae-jung quickly recognized the importance of the IMF agreement in restoring South Korea's economic health.

The first task of the Kim Dae-jung administration was restoring investor confidence.

Kim Dae-jung vigorously pushed economic reform and restructuring recommended by the International Monetary Fund, in the process significantly altering the landscape of South Korean economy.

Kim Dae-jung commenced the gold-collecting campaign in South Korea to overcome the debt to the International Monetary Fund.

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.

Foreign direct investment, under Kim Dae-jung, was viewed as vital to the financial and corporate reform process as a form of secure, stable and long-term form of investment, and able to acquire new technologies and managerial practices.

Kim Dae-jung's administration did not shy away from using strong-arm tactics to bring about desired results.

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.

Kim Dae-jung's government enhanced labour market flexibility as a key goal of structural reforms.

Kim Dae-jung forged corporatist agreements between business, labour and government to get them to work together to resolve the country's financial woes.

Kim Dae-jung moved to begin detente with respect to the totalitarian government in North Korea, which culminated in a historic summit meeting in 2000 in Pyongyang with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

Early in his term Kim Dae-jung invited Chun and Roh, both of whom attempted to have him killed, to the Blue House and refrained from seeking political vengeance.

Subsequently, Kim Dae-jung organized gatherings with the former presidents to seek advice, an unprecedented move.

President Kim Dae-jung 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 Dae-jung agreed with the GNP to implement a parallel voting system like in Japan, and the agreement collapsed amidst protests from civic groups.

Kim Dae-jung's administration included more individuals from Jeolla, which led to charges of reverse discrimination.

Finally, conservatives accused Kim Dae-jung of being an appeaser towards North Korea with his Sunshine Policy.

Kim Dae-jung 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.

President Kim Dae-jung effectively became a lame duck, and the political leverage that he had accumulated thanks to his summit diplomacy came to an abrupt end.

Kim Dae-jung exited at the end of his term on 24 February 2003 and was succeeded by Roh Moo-hyun.

Kim Dae-jung called for restraint against the North Koreans for detonating a nuclear weapon and defended the continued Sunshine Policy towards Pyongyang to defuse the crisis.

Kim Dae-jung 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.

Kim Dae-jung is the second person in South Korean history to be given a state funeral after Park Chung Hee.