'DJ', peace prize winning Korean leader, dies

Published on Tuesday 18 August 2009 22:03

FORMER president Kim Dae-jung, a giant in South Korea's shift to democracy who won the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to forge a reconciliation with the prickly Communist North, died yesterday at the age of 85.

Kim, popularly known by his initials "DJ", died at Yonsei Severance Hospital in Seoul.

News of his death brought an outpouring of condolences, including from those who disagreed with the liberal leader on how to deal with North Korea.

"We lost a great political leader today. His accomplishments and aspirations to achieve democratisation and inter-Korean reconciliation will long be remembered by the people," said conservative president Lee Myung-bak.

The former political prisoner, once sentenced to death under one of the country's early military rulers whom he relentlessly opposed, was elected South Korea's president in December 1997 on his fourth attempt.

It was the first time in the country that power had shifted from a ruling party president to one from the opposition and firmly established democracy in a country that had spent its early years under a succession of autocratic rulers.

Kim was the architect of the "Sunshine Policy" of engaging with North Korea which led to an unprecedented warming of ties between the foes.

An inspiring speaker in both Korean and English, he shuffled when he walked due to injuries suffered in an assassination attempt in the 1970s.