Kim Dae-jung

Biography

Kim Dae-jung was a South Korean politician and statesman who served as President of South Korea from 1998 to 2003. A longtime opponent of military dictatorship, he led a democratization movement in the 1960s and 1980s, facing repeated imprisonment, exile, and assassination attempts. Defying the odds, he emerged victorious in the 1997 presidential election, becoming the first opposition candidate to win the presidency at age 74.