A brave democracy activist, a prominent advocate of engagement with North Korea, the creator of the Sunshine Policy, a deserving winner of the Nobel Prize and a much-respected former President of South Korea to his advocates; a man who ignored human rights abuses and blindly paid off a totalitarian dictator to his detractors, Kim Dae Jung passed away this afternoon at a hospital in western Seoul.
Kim had been in the hospital since mid-July suffering from pneumonia. He died at 1:43 P.M.
Kim was a democratization activist from the start; he battled the Park Chung Hee military regime which oversaw South Korea’s rapid economic development but at significant social cost. He was sentenced to death by the following regime of Chun Doo Hwan, but saw the sentence commuted. Finally, he ascended to the Presidency at the fourth attempt, in 1997, serving his term and handing the reins to another liberal, the recently deceased Roh Moo Hyun, in 2003.
There can be no doubt that he was a politician who held aloft the flame of South Korean democracy under authoritarian, repressive governments. His indomitable will, which compelled him to refuse to compromise with unfairness despite looking death in the face twice, took him to the Presidency.
However, it is also undeniable that as President he facilitated the current nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula, and kept silent about the tragic existence of the North Korean people and appalling human rights violations in the name of the Sunshine Policy.
He is a man who experienced the turbulence of modern history, political glory and the profoundest shame. Now, we hope he rests in peace, leaving the burden of history for others to bear.
