Kim Young Sam: South Korean president ended years of military rule

Kim, who had been hospitalized with fever since Thursday, died at 0:22 a.m. local time, according to Seoul National University Hospital. In recent years, Mr. Kim had been treated at the hospital for stroke, angina and pneumonia, he added.

A democratic thorn in the side of General Park Chee-hung and General Chun Doo-hwan during successive dictatorships that lasted almost three decades from 1961, Mr Kim was 27 when he was first elected to the national assembly, making him the youngest ever national-level politician in South Korea.

“As someone who has followed Korea’s development for many years, I do have vivid memories of President Kim’s contributions and activities and of course have long respected his fight for democracy”.

South Korean intelligence officials confirmed to the Yonhap news agency that Choe Ryong-hae had been sent to “Kim Il-sung Higher Party School”.

Kim Young-sam was known for starting an anti-corruption campaign in South Korea which was also the part of an attempt to reform the chaebol – the large South Korean conglomerates.

He also accepted a massive worldwide bailout during the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis.

Kim was born on Dec 20, 1927, on a southeastern island and became a lawmaker in 1954.

On November 23, 2010, two South Korean soldiers and two civilians died in what Seoul termed was a retaliatory strike around the disputed demarcation line off South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island in the Yellow Sea.

South Korea’s military has in the past staged live-fire exercises near the Yellow Sea border around the anniversary as a show of strength. A few months later, he broke with the party over a constitutional revision and joined the opposition party. He was expelled from parliament in 1979 for leading protests against President Park Chung-hee, father of current President Park.

During that chaotic period, Maj.

He leaves his wife, two sons and three daughters. But he split that opposition vote with another activist, Kim Dae-jung, allowing Roh Tae-woo to win the election.

An official at South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said they were monitoring the situation but he declined to give further comment. He opposed the country’s military dictators for decades and laid the foundation for a peaceful power transfer as president.