김대중 金大中
15th President of the Republic of Korea; 2000 Nobel Peace Prize laureate
| Life | 1924 ~ 2009 |
| Era | 근현대 |
| Clan | 김해 김씨 |
Life & career
Born in Sinan, Jeollanam-do, Kim Dae-jung served as a member of the National Assembly from the 1960s and became a leading opposition leader. In 1971 he ran for president against Park Chung-hee, and thereafter, for a long period under the military regimes, he suffered political persecution including imprisonment, house arrest, and exile.
He was elected president in the 15th presidential election of 1997, achieving the first peaceful transfer of power between ruling and opposition parties through an election in the nation's constitutional history. During his term he worked to overcome the foreign exchange crisis (the IMF crisis) and pursued the "Sunshine Policy" of reconciliation and cooperation with North Korea.
In June 2000 he brought about the first inter-Korean summit since the division of the peninsula, and that same year became the first Korean to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, for his contributions to peace on the Korean Peninsula and the advancement of democracy and human rights. He passed away in 2009 and was buried at Seoul National Cemetery.
Grave
Seoul National Cemetery (Dongjak-gu, Seoul)
Descendants
His wife was Lee Hui-ho (1922-2019), and his eldest son Kim Hong-il (1948-2019) served as a member of the National Assembly.