The Two Koreas_ A Contemporary History - Don Oberdorfer [101]
Kim Jong 11, who inherited power after his father's death, waves to his people but remains mysteriously silent on public occasions.
Formerly close friends who grew apart in public life, ex-presidents Roh and Chun join hands at sentencing in court on corruption and treason charges in August 1996. (Photo by Kim Chul Ho / Joong-ang Photo)
A North Korean submarine, discovered by a cab driver at the South Korean coast, drives North-South relations to a new low in autumn 1996. (Photo by Kim Chul Ho / Joong-ang Photo)
Presidents Clinton and Kim Young Sam (second from right), accompanied by interpreters, walk through a field of flowers on Cheju island in April 1996 before announcing their proposal for four-party talks on permanent peace in the peninsula. (Joong-ang Photo)
The leaders of the two Koreas, Kim Dae Jung of the South and Kim Jong Il of the North, raise their hands together at the Pyongyang summit in June 2000, a high point of promise for an unprecedented era of cooperation on the divided peninsula. (Korean Overseas Information Service)
Four sorrowful children in a hospital at Pyongsong, who are years smaller than normal for their ages, illustrate the tragic long-term consequences of famine in parts of North Korea since the mid1990s. (Norbert Vollertsen)
The personal rivalry between the two Kims went back to 1970, when they had contended for the presidential nomination of the major opposition party against incumbent President Park. Kim Dae Jung had been the victor in the nominating convention due to deft maneuvering that won the support of a third faction. Though the two Kims and their respective factions worked together at times, they were never comfortable with each another.
Kim Young Sam was born on December 20, 1928, on Koje Island near Pusan, at the southeastern tip of the Korean peninsula. His father, a successful island businessman, sent him to the elite high school in Pusan and to Seoul National University, the nation's most prestigious university. Kim was elected to the National Assembly on the government ticket at age 25, the youngest national legislator on record. He soon rebelled against the Syngman Rhee government's dictatorial tactics and was an original member of the opposition Democratic Party, embarking on a lifelong advocacy of democracy.
In 1960 the Koje Island home of Kim's parents was invaded while they slept by two men demanding money. As Kim's mother grappled with one of the men, she was fatally wounded by a gunshot to the abdomen. A year later one of the robbers was caught and confessed to being a North Korean agent seeking money to buy a boat. The family tragedy, which was well known in Korea, colored Kim's attitude toward the North and shielded him from the red-baiting that was common against opposition politicians. His elite schooling and establishment roots also made him unusually acceptable to the middle and upper ranks of Korean society. Of the three leading presidential contenders in 1987, he was the closest to a normal politician.
As an opposition leader, Kim had long been outspoken and undaunted by oppression. During the Park era, he was jailed for opposing military rule and in 1969 was the victim of an acid attack while opposing Park's drive to amend the Constitution to allow him a third term. A decade later he was expelled from the National Assembly for publicly calling Park a dictator and asking the United States to intervene. After Chun took power, Kim was placed under house arrest for two years for demanding democratic reforms and went on a twenty-three-day hunger strike. In our conversations while he was in opposition, I found Kim Young Sam a steadfast advocate of reform and democracy but vague on other issues.
The setting for my meeting with Kim Dae Jung was very different-his house in central Seoul, a walled compound I had visited many times while he was under various forms of house arrest. This time his front parlor was crowded with a claque of supporters, many of