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Even in death, Kim Dae-jung unites Koreas
By JEAN H. LEE (Agencies)
Updated: 2009-08-24 11:43
SEOUL: In death as in life, Kim Dae-jung managed to bring the two rival Koreas together. Hours before his funeral Sunday, officials from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) dispatched to Seoul to pay their respects to the Nobel Peace Prize winner held talks with the president of the Republic of Korea (ROK) — the first high-level inter-Korean contact after many months of tension. They relayed a message about bilateral relations from the DPRK's leader Kim Jong-il during a half hour of "serious and amicable" talks with President Lee Myung-bak, Lee's spokesman said. Seoul's Chosun Ilbo and JoongAng Ilbo newspapers reported that Kim had expressed his desire to hold a summit with Lee, citing unidentified officials. But Seoul's presidential Blue House denied the reports. The meeting itself was a fitting breakthrough on a day of mourning for a man who made history by traveling to Pyongyang in 2000 to meet Kim for the first summit between leaders of the two countries. "Farewell, Mr. Sunshine," read yellow placards held up by mourners who packed the plaza outside City Hall on Sunday to watch a broadcast of his funeral at the National Assembly. Kim Dae-jung died Aug. 18 at the age of 85. The DPRK and the ROK technically remain in a state of war because their three-year conflict ended in 1953 with a truce, not a peace treaty. Tanks and troops still guard the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone bisecting the peninsula. Kim, however, was respected on both sides of the border. As president from 1998 to 2003, he advocated a "Sunshine Policy" of engaging the DPRK and sought to ease reconciliation by plying the nation with aid.
The following years saw a blossoming of reconciliation projects, including the emotional temporary reunions of thousands of family members separated by the Korean War, the restoration of a cross-border cargo train and inter-Korean business ventures. Relations have been tense since Lee, a conservative, took office in February 2008, abandoning the Sunshine Policy and insisting that the DPRK must prove its commitment to international nuclear disarmament pacts before it can expect aid. Pyongyang, in response, ditched the reconciliation talks and most of the inter-Korean projects and routinely excoriated Lee in state media as "scum" and a "traitor" to Korean reconciliation. |
