Kim Dae-jung: From prison to president

By Carol Clark
CNN Interactive

Kim Dae-jung has called for an "electronic democracy," using the Internet as a tool for public participation

(CNN) -- South Korean President Kim Dae-jung endured a run-in with a 14-ton truck, a kidnapping, repeated arrests, beatings, exile and a death sentence during his decades-long struggle as an opposition leader. After losing three election bids for president, he came back from retirement to finally win the office at age 72, pledging major democratic reforms. He is sometimes referred to as "the Nelson Mandela of Asia."

"He deserves the title. He's a world-class leader -- intelligent, sophisticated -- and he's been through a tremendous amount," said Donald Gregg, who as the former Seoul station chief for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency played a role in saving Kim's life after he was kidnapped in 1973.

"The Koreans speak of themselves as shrimp among whales -- a weak country among large and aggressive neighbors," Gregg said. "Under Kim Dae-jung there's been a complete turnaround. South Korea is becoming a hub of the region."

Shortly after he took office in 1998, Kim held summit meetings with the leaders of Japan, China and Russia. He has subsequently met with U.S. President Bill Clinton and the leaders of Italy, France and Germany, winning wide support for his "sunshine policy" with North Korea and putting South Korea in its strongest diplomatic position ever.

'An agile, tough politician'

But Kim Dae-jung, or "D.J.," as he is known, faces harsher critics at home. Nearly halfway into his five-year term his support has declined.

South Korea's rapid recovery from a severe economic crisis and his announcement in April that he would hold a historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il were not enough to secure his coalition a majority in the latest parliamentary elections.

After years of rallying the opposition, "he is finding that it's much more difficult to run a democracy in a successful and smooth way. But that's what we have to do. We've made our decision," South Korea's ambassador to the United States, Lee Hong-koo, told a recent symposium in Washington.

Kim Dae-jung "is a very controversial politician," said Don Oberdorfer, former Washington Post diplomatic correspondent and author of "The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History."

"South Korean politics is largely regional and he's from a less-populated region that feels it's been discriminated against. He doesn't have a majority in the National Assembly. He made a deal with a guy from the opposite side of the political spectrum in order to get enough votes to become president. He's a very agile, tough politician -- he's had to be."

Provincial roots

Kim Dae-jung's main base of support lies in his home region in the southwest part of the peninsula.

He gives his birthdate as December 3, 1925. He was born to middle class farmers on Ha Enido, a small island in South Cholla province, but the family moved to the nearby port of Mokpo so Kim could complete high school.

He began dabbling in anti-establishment politics while working in the shipping industry. After his fifth try for political office, Kim was elected to the National Assembly in 1961. One month later, Gen. Park Chung-hee seized control of the government through a military coup, launching Kim's career as a key opposition figure. The tough, authoritarian Park proved the perfect foil for the fiery oratory of the charismatic Kim.

The more Park persecuted Kim, the more Kim's popularity grew -- especially in the region of Cholla. Many residents of the provinces of North and South Cholla felt disadvantaged during the regime of Park, who was from the Taegu region in the southeast, their political rival.

During the height of the Vietnam War, in 1971, Kim proclaimed his liberal views on the reunification of North and South Korea. He was branded a communist by the government, but in his first president race he won 46 percent of the vote running against Park.

Narrow escapes

Kim was headed to a rally in Seoul a month after the election when a truck turned directly into the path of his car, forcing him off the road. The truck hit another vehicle, killing two people. Kim was left with a permanent limp from the incident, which is widely believed to have been an assassination attempt.

Park tightened his hold in 1972, scrapping the constitution and doing away with any pretense of democratic rule. Kim traveled to Japan for medical treatment and continued his anti-Park campaign. In August 1973, South Korean agents kidnapped Kim from a Tokyo hotel and took him out to sea in a small boat where he spent several harrowing days.

"He was bound hand and foot and waiting to be thrown over the side," Gregg said.

When U.S. Ambassador Philip Habib was informed of the abduction, he called Park and warned him that he would face severe repercussions from the United States if Kim were killed. Kim was returned to his Seoul home, battered but alive, and spent the next nine years under house arrest, in jail or in exile.

In 1979 Park was assassinated by the head of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency and another general, Chun Doo-hwan, imposed martial law as he moved to take over the presidency. Kim and other leading opposition figures were arrested as tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Kwangju, in South Cholla Province. Troops used force to quell the demonstrations, killing at least 200 people by some estimates.

While in the United States during exile, Kim made a tearful plea for his countrymen and his cause

Kim was charged with sedition and nearly executed, but again the United States intervened and Kim's life was spared. Under a deal with the Reagan administration, Kim boarded a plane to the United States in 1982. He used his time in exile well, brushing up on his English, working as a visiting fellow at Harvard University and cultivating influential American friends.

Even these contacts could not help him when he returned to his homeland a few years later. As soon as he stepped off the plane in Seoul, Kim was knocked down by Korean security officers and dragged back into house arrest.

'I never lost hope'

Kim made two more failed bids for president -- in 1987 and 1992 -- before declaring that he was quitting politics. His retirement did not last long. The maverick politician forged a dramatic coalition with Kim Jong-pil, another opposition leader and the founder of the KCIA, and Kim Dae-jung was elected president in 1997, at the height of the Asian economic crisis.

Kim and his wife, Lee Hee-ho, vote in the 1997 elections

"Throughout my life I have faced death five times. For six years I was in prisons, and for 10 years I was in exile or under house arrest," Kim told Time magazine shortly after winning the presidency. "I never lost hope that someday there would be something like this."

His inauguration marked the first peaceful transfer of power between rival parties in 50 years.

The economic crisis presented Kim with a huge problem at the beginning of his presidency, but it also rallied the patriotism of the population. Passions for regional politics were subdued by a spirit of cooperation needed to help alleviate the country's dire financial circumstances.

South Korea's economy shrank by 5.8 percent in 1998 but bounced back in 1999 to grow by 10.2 percent. It is forecast to grow by at least 6 percent in 2000.

Kim has been largely credited with the economic turnaround, but he has not rested on his laurels. Despite his advanced age, his outlook appears focused on the future. He stresses the need for technological development for South Korea to assume its rightful place as a first-rate nation with a strong economy backed by a democratic system.

Campaign commercials in 1997 such as this outlined Kim's plans for technological development

"In the new millennium, an electronic democracy will be realized," Kim said in an address posted on his Web site. "We must forge a clean nation where corruption and irregularities are rooted out completely through active public participation and surveillance. The government will establish an 'Internet shinmungo,' or petitioners' drum, so that it will be able to hear complaints directly from citizens and reform the government accordingly. ... If we cannot cope creatively and positively with the knowledge revolution in the new age, we will be pushed aside to the periphery of world history."

'He has to surprise us'

But many of Kim's promised reforms have yet to materialize. The government has spent billions trying to clear up the bad debts of the chaebol, the traditional Korean conglomerates, but has not implemented the tough measures needed to restructure them.

Meanwhile regional politics have come back to the forefront. Many who are not from the southwest accuse Kim of relying on a small group of loyal advisers, instead of broadening his base to include other factions. Corruption scandals within Kim's government have further raised the level of cynicism.

"Kim Dae-jung hasn't done anything drastic," said Kim Young-chul, the head of Kaya Media, a publishing company in Seoul. "I think we would have come out of the economic crisis regardless. He has tried very hard, so I respect him. But to be a hero he has to surprise us and he hasn't surprised us -- yet."

The North-South summit may provide the political surprise that Koreans crave.

Although Kim's sunshine policy has drawn fire domestically, with some people complaining that he is giving away too much without making enough demands, the summit is seen as a major coup and is expected to vindicate him.

"The public is solidly behind the summit," said K.A. Namkung, resident scholar of the Atlantic Council of the United States, a Washington think tank.

"Kim Dae-jung deserves a great deal of credit for his far-sighted vision and persistence. If the results are positive, he will have earned a special place in the history of the reunification of the Korean nation."

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