Former S.Korean president dies at 85
- Source: Global Times
- [01:04 August 19 2009]
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By Yang Chen and Zhang Wen
Kim Dae-jung, a towering figure in South Korea’s struggle for democracy, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and survivor of a death sentence and assassination attempts, died yesterday at the age of 85.
“He was declared dead at 1:43 pm,” a spokesman for Seoul’s Severance Hospital said.
Kim, who was president from 1998 to 2003, was treated for pneumonia in the hospital. Local media reports said he died of heart failure after weeks of struggle. A temporary mourning altar has been set up at the hospital.
President Lee Myung-bak announced yesterday that the country had lost a “great political leader.” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced plans to visit the hospital where the body of the former president is being held, Ban’s aides said yesterday.
South Korea reportedly postponed the launch of its first space rocket, the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1. However, the Xinhua News Agency said the South Korean government confirmed yesterday that Kim’s death would not affect the rocket launch, which should take place tomorrow as planned.
“The death of Kim is likely to force the government to ease its tough policy toward North Korea, but the planned government policy will be implemented without a big change in policy direction,” Cai Jian, an expert on South Korean issues at Fudan University, told the Global Times.
Cai noted that North Korea might use Kim’s death as an opportunity to attack Lee’s policy on Pyongyang, and further address the fact that the animosity between the two sides will only harm the inter-Korea relationship, while the domestic opposition in the South will further promote the unity and development of leftist forces, casting more influence on the future of South Korea.
“Kim’s death may lead to a new round of debate on Lee’s hardline policy, and at least it will make the people reconsider it,” Zheng Chenghong, a researcher on North Korea issues and deputy editor in chief of Chinese Social Sciences Magazine, told the Global Times.
Kim was a life-long fighter for democracy. He campaigned hard against the 1961-1979 rule of dictator Park Chung-hee. In August 1973 he was kidnapped by Korean CIA agents from a Tokyo hotel and was about to be thrown into the sea but was saved by international intervention.
In 1980, the army-backed rule of Chun Doo-hwan sentenced Kim to death for his alleged role in piloting the democratic movement in Gwangju in May of that year, but released him in 1982 amid international calls for clemency. A wave of mass street protests in 1987 ended Chun’s rule.
Kim then won the presidency in 1997 after four attempts.
An AFP report said yesterday that under Kim’s leadership, the nation pulled itself out of the global financial crisis in the 1990s and launched major economic reforms and corporate restructuring.
