Former South Korean leader Kim Dae-jung dies
Reuters – South Korean President Kim Dae-jung speaks at a news conference at the presidential Blue House in Seoul …
SEOUL (Reuters) – Former President Kim Dae-jung, a towering figure in South Korea's struggle for democracy who won the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize for seeking rapprochement with the communist North, died on Tuesday at the age of 85.
An official at a Seoul hospital treating Kim for pneumonia confirmed the death. Local media reports said he died of heart failure.
In his final year, Kim saw his efforts unravel as relations with the North headed back into the freezer under the South's current conservative President Lee Myung-bak.
The former political prisoner, popularly referred to by his initials "DJ", was elected South Korea's president in December 1997, a victory that marked the first time in South Korea that power had shifted from a ruling party president to a president from the opposition.
Internationally, Kim is best known for his historic handshake and embrace of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in June 2000, at the first summit meeting of the leaders of the two countries on the divided peninsula.
The meeting was the culmination of the "Sunshine Policy" that won Kim the Nobel prize -- his idea of prodding the North forward with the promise of incentives and reducing the strain of eventual unification through economic integration.
But at home, it was Kim's life-long struggle against South Korea's early repressive authoritarian leaders that defined him and made his name a household word and inspiration for generations.
Kim was a devout Catholic who was an inspiring speaker in both Korean and English. He shuffled when he walked due to injuries suffered to his legs in an assassination attempt in the 1970s when a truck rammed his car off a road.
The exact date of Kim's birth is uncertain, but several biographies have it listed as January 6, 1924.
(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz and Christine Kim, editing by Jonathan Thatcher and Dean Yates)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090818/wl_nm/us_korea_president_kim
韩国前总统金大中今日病逝 终年83岁
资料图：金大中
1998年2月就任韩国第15任总统
中国新闻网8月18日电 据韩联社报道，韩国第15届总统金大中于当地时间18日下午1时42分逝世，终年83岁。
法新社援引首尔医院发言人的话报道称，金大中的心脏从1时35分开始衰竭。医疗人员经过努力，仍无法挽回其生命。
金大中于1998—2003年任韩国总统。韩联社称，他因肺炎和其他症状，于7月13日在新村塞布兰斯医院住院，在特护病房接受集中治疗以后，22日随着病情好转转入普通病房，但第二天因出现肺栓塞症状佩戴人工呼吸机继续接受专门治疗，但最终未能恢复健康。
背景资料：韩国前总统金大中
金大中 (Kim Dae-Jung) 1925年12月3日生于韩国全罗南道新安郡。1943年毕业于全罗南道木浦商业学校，后在韩国高丽大学、庆熙大学及剑桥、哈佛等欧美多所大学学习，并获政治学博士及多种名誉学位。
金大中1954年开始从政，1961年当选为第五届国会议员，其后历任第6、7、8、13、14届国会议员和和平民主党、新民党、民主党和新政治国民会议的主要领导人。金大中早年因从事民主活动多次被监禁。1994年，金大中成立亚太和平财团，任理事长，1995年7月创立新政治国民会议，任总裁。1998年2月至2003年2月任韩国总统。2000年1月，他领导的新政治国民会议与新千年民主党合并，任该党总裁。
金大中曾多次访华。1998年11月对中国进行国事访问。2009年5月，金大中应中国人民外交学会邀请访华。
金大中信仰天主教，喜欢读书，爱好文学和艺术。曾获多项国际奖，2000年获诺贝尔和平奖。著有《狱中书信》、《大众经济论》、《我的道路，我的思想》等。
2009年7月13日，金大中因肺炎住院，15日和23日两度转入重症监护病房。
夫人李姬镐，他们有三个孩子。
