Table Of ContentCONSCIENCE
IN ACTION
The Autobiography of KIM DAE-JUNG
Translated by Jeon Seung-hee
Conscience in Action
Kim Dae-jung
Conscience in Action
The Autobiography of Kim Dae-jung
Foreword by Lee Hee-ho
Kim Dae-jung
Translated by Jeon Seung-hee
ISBN 978-981-10-7622-0 ISBN 978-981-10-7623-7 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7623-7
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This book is a translation of the two-volume Kim Dae-jung Jaseojeon
(“Autobiography of Kim Dae-jung”), Seoul: Samin, 2010. The translator
has tried to be faithful to the original, but also wishes to clarify that it is not
a verbatim translation. In translating Korean proper names and nouns,
I have tried to apply individual preferences, as well as customary practices,
which include the official South Korean transcribing system for South
Korean names and the North Korean system for North Korean names. The
final version was proofread by Nikki Van Noy.
v
F : T M d H
oreword o y ear usband
It has already been almost a year since you passed away. My heart aches
when I envision your smile. Our house remains the same. I planted our
favorite safinias, crape myrtles, globe amaranths, and pansies in the gar-
den. How much you would have enjoyed seeing these beautiful flowers!
We often enjoyed drinking coffee and looking at the garden from our
living room together. Feeding the sparrows that visited our house was
your only leisure activity. These days, even more sparrows visit our house,
waiting to be fed. Whenever I hear them chirp, I am reminded of you and
I cannot help tearing up.
When you began writing your autobiography, you said, “I’ll write
everything truthfully and dedicate it to history and our descendants.”
Reading your finished work, I am reminded in rapid succession of the vari-
ous periods we spent together. It makes me feel as if you’re alive and here
with me. In retrospect, I really did not know that such a difficult life lay
ahead of us.
You lived a truly eventful life filled with adversity. In Romans, there is a
phrase that reads: “Our present sufferings are not worth comparing with
the glory that will be revealed in us.” As if to illustrate this point, your
dramatic life was a continuation of unimaginable hardships. You survived
several life-or-death crises. You did not give up your beliefs despite all the
hardships you endured through exiles, house arrests, and imprisonment.
You resolutely refused to compromise with the forces that oppressed you,
and you even forgave them. Through this, you made major contributions
to bringing democracy to our country.
vii
viii FOREWORD: TO MY DEAR HUSBAND
After being elected president, you worked tirelessly from dawn until
midnight in order to save our country, which had just been thrown into a
precipitous financial crisis. You overcame it and established South Korea as
an IT powerhouse. You forged inter-Korean reconciliation in order to
achieve national reunification, your lifelong dream. You achieved the his-
toric inter-Korean summit, where the South and North Korean Accord
was announced.
I believe that your dream of building a nation where democracy, free-
dom, and peace bloom is still being carried out. All of this is thanks to the
fact that you never despaired, and continued to move forward toward a
future of hope, no matter what your circumstances.
We will continue to strive to achieve those goals you worked so hard
for. We will never rest until the day when the South and North demolish
the wall dividing them and are reunited as one. I pray for the day when the
reunification that you so wished for—no, that we all wish for—is achieved.
We will act as conscience in action, help our neighbors in plight, and live
peacefully, as you so sincerely hoped. We will work hard to achieve peace
in the world. I hope that our descendants will continue to work to fulfill
your wishes.
Many people have worked diligently to publish your autobiography,
which documents your life of overcoming hardships. Your respected
friends, former president of the United States Bill Clinton, former
president of Germany Richard Von Weizsäcker, and former president of
the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev also sent warm remarks in honor of
the publication of your autobiography.
I still cannot believe that you are no longer here with us. Although
I spend my days missing you, I feel comforted to think that God has
granted you a crown of triumph.
I think of the forty-seven-year life that we lived together every day.
I always admired and loved you. I will pray for and love you until my last
breath.
I trust that God will respond to our prayers with His endless love. May
you rest in peace in His embrace.
Seoul, South Korea Lee Hee-ho
Summer 2010
a d H r e
eFender oF uMan igHTs and qualiTy
President Kim Dae-jung was a wise and courageous leader who served
South Korea well and inspired people who love peace and freedom all over
the world. He lived his life with a vision for peace, and I continue to be
inspired by the bravery he demonstrated in defending democracy, and
pursuing reconciliation with North Korea. I will also be forever grateful
for his friendship and unfailing kindness to me.
President Kim led his people into a new century with a careful eye on
the future. He worked tirelessly to realize the potential of his nation, and
to help create a world with more partners and fewer adversaries. He saw
the immense opportunity in forging relationships rather than abandoning
them. He possessed a rare understanding of the modern, interdependent
world, and recognized that South Korea’s fate was bound to the interna-
tional community.
In the midst of the Asian Financial Crisis, President Kim advanced busi-
ness privatization and the development of global economic partnerships,
and his financial strategies did more to open world markets to South
Koreans than those of any previous administration. In the process, he ush-
ered in a new era of business engagement and prosperity for the South
Korean people—an age of growth they continue to enjoy today.
I met President Kim in 1992, and had the privilege to work with him
in strengthening the ties and deepening the friendship between the US
and South Korea. In the years we served together, I witnessed how com-
mitted he was to promoting peace and intercultural understanding. To
this day, I still believe that one of his most profound moments in office was
his visit to Pyongyang—the first summit meeting between the leaders of
ix
x A DEFENDER OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND EQUALITY
North and South Korea since before the War. His “Sunshine Policy” solid-
ified his strong commitment to advancing diplomacy and cooperation on
the Korean Peninsula, and it showed he believed that working in partner-
ship rather than in isolation would lead to a brighter tomorrow for Koreans
in both nations. The “Sunshine Policy” was a profound gesture of solidar-
ity that gave more hope for lasting peace and reconciliation between
North and South Korea than ever before. Had President Kim been able to
achieve the partnership he dreamed of, we would be living in a more
secure and equitable world today.
President Kim bravely championed democracy, defended human rights
and equality, brought his country back from economic crisis, and enhanced
national security. His Nobel Prize was richly deserved.
As we continue into the twenty-first century, our pervasive interdepen-
dence makes President Kim’s legacy more relevant than ever. If we want to
build a world that is more equal, more stable, and more sustainable, lead-
ers should bear in mind President Kim’s faith in the power of partnership:
we can only move forward together, and because of this inescapable real-
ity, we must lead with the same courage and dedication that President Kim
Dae-jung exhibited throughout his life.
New York, USA William Jefferson Clinton
May 12, 2010
o s M
uTsTanding TaTesMan and a an oF
e d
xTraordinary esTiny
I was deeply honored and moved to be invited by Madam Lee Hee-ho to
write a short preface for President Kim Dae-jung’s autobiography.
For more than two decades, President Kim and I were united in a col-
laborative relationship, based on a deep mutual understanding and close
friendship. Throughout the course of our relationship, I had multiple
opportunities to confirm that President Kim Dae-jung was an extraordinary
statesman, a thinker devoted to the cause of democracy, and a man of
special destiny.
There is no one who would not admire President Kim’s role in modern
Korean history and his courage as manifested in his resistance to dictator-
ship for the sake of the democratic development of Korea. Even various
forms of imprisonment and threats to his life could not break his belief and
will.
Entrusted with the presidency at the turn of the century and the begin-
ning of a new millennium, President Kim rescued Korea from a serious
financial crisis and carried out fundamental reform that can be dubbed the
“Korean perestroika.” Above all, the Sunshine Policy that President Kim
declared and carried out clearly showed his outstanding leadership. His
leadership enabled the unprecedented (and still unparalleled) inter-Korean
summit and the development of inter-Korean humanitarian and economic
cooperation. In addition, the six-party talks to solve the problems on the
Korean Peninsula began under his leadership. There have been disputes
on the Korean Peninsula since then, but they have only proved the impor-
tance of the Kim Dae-jung initiative.
xi
