Rob beat me to it, but I add my 2cents worth on the passing of Kim Dae Jung.
It hasn’t been a good year for former South Korean Presidents.
Sad news that this afternoon Kim Dae Jung died at Severance Hospital in Seoul this afternoon. At age 85 he had been struggling with pneumonia since mid last month.
Whilst his time came (and probably went) before I arrived in Korea I remember my first Hakwon boss speaking about him with some reverence. Indeed said boss’ brother was actually a member of parliament at the time for the Uri-dang and had apparently spent sometime as a cell mate of Kim Dae Jung in the 80s.
Internationally Kim will probably be remembered for (what some might now call the failed) “Sunshine policy” towards North Korea, but Koreans are probably more inclined to remember him as a pretty vocal critique of totalitarian regimes, and indeed someone who paid the price for said criticism, being abducted from a Tokyo hotel and imprisoned on two occasions and having a death sentence commuted.
Stolen from here.
There will certainly be elements of K-Blogland (The English Speaking parts especially) who will pull out the usual criticisms of the man, but I would say Kim Dae Jung did more for the cause of (South) Korea as a country than did his successor Roh Mu Hyun.
Kim Dae Jung 15th President of the Republic of Korea. 1924-2009 R.I.P
Coverage in The K-Times, Dong-a [한국어], and a brief word from The Chosun.
*Kim Dae Jung, President, Dies.
19/08/2009 at 9:50 am Permalink
Was that final dig at Noh really necessary? I understand that just because someone has passed away doesn’t mean we excuse and ignore all their problems, but that kind of comment does nothing in terms of real criticism of his term and life’s work, nor does it really elevate Kim in any way. The only thing it does is seem petty. Let’s perhaps honor Kim’s achievements without taking pot shots at anybody else, particularly when it isn’t really relevant?
In the meantime, I’m sorry to hear about Kim’s passing. His life was truly one of real committment, and he did much for the advancement of democracy here.
19/08/2009 at 5:24 pm Permalink
After reading the NYT obituary of him, my perspective changed a bit. I know a lot of people focus on the $400 million dollars that he sent to North Korea, and point to that as proof of the failure of the sunshine policy, but I think that Kim Dae Joong actually thought that the Kims up north could be dealt with. I mean Kim Dae Joon survived a bunch of assassination attempts at the hands of dictators (and even set free the guy who burned down Kwang-ju) so I think the dude was just seriously not afraid of the North Koreans, and perhaps a bit naive.
19/08/2009 at 6:29 pm Permalink
If the Sunshine Policy was a “failure,” by what metric was it supposed to be a success? The DPRK turning into a succesful democracy overnight? With a highly motivated and educated workforce ready to start shipping cheap consumer goods around the globe, specifically to the Wal-Mart I used to live near?
There are very few good outcomes involving a direct military confrontation between the North and the South and her allies. I’d argue that “Seoul not being a smoking crater” is a success in and of itself, but the situation is no doubt complicated.
But we do know Kim Jong-il is dying and and that it will still be a while whether we can call Kim’s policies “failed” or “succesful.”
Shorter: Giving money to an authoritarian regime sucks, but you have to consider the (very bad) alternatives sometimes.