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 killed by vehicular homicide, 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 the 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. 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. He was sometimes referred to as "the Nelson Mandela of Asia".
Kim Dae-jung was born on 8 January 1924, but his father later changed his registered birth date to 3 December 1925 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.
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. At the same time, Kim Un-sik was very open-minded and believed that the country needed to open its doors to development. The village official's family received the newspaper Maeil sinbo sent by the government every day. Kim was a 12th generation descendant of Kim Ik-soo (김익수; 金益壽) who served as Second Minister of the Board of War (김병조참판; 兵曹參判) and the civil minister (김문신; 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 Hauido. 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. When Kim Dae-jung was in the fourth grade of primary school, 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.
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) with the highest score. 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. 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.
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 3 December 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. His Japanese boss also acted as a guarantor for him, allowing him to escape police surveillance. On 9 April 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.