By Lee Tae-hoon
Staff Reporter

Former President Kim Young-sam and his followers met with the long-time aides of the late President Kim Dae-jung in Seoul in what appeared to be a reconciliation dinner, Thursday.

Kim Young-sam, who served as president from 1993 to 1998, proposed having a reconciliatory gathering on Aug. 26, several days after Kim Dae-jung, president from 1998 to 2003, died.

However, Kim Dae-jung's followers postponed the meeting, saying it would be inappropriate to hold such a meeting during the mourning period.

Some 100 political heavyweights, who led the nation's pro-democracy movement in the 1980s, attended the dinner meeting.

Participants belonging to the Kim Young-sam faction included Rep. Kim Moo-sung of the governing Grand National Party; Kim Deog-ryong, special presidential adviser on national unity; Park Kwan-yong, former National Assembly speaker; and Choi Hyung-woo, former minister of home affairs and the leader's former right-hand man.

On Kim Dae-jung's side, former lawmakers Kwon Roh-kap, Han Hwa-kap, Han Kwang-ok and Kim Ok-doo attended the event.

Also attending the meeting were Kim Hyun-chul, son of Kim Young-sam, and Kim Hong-up, son of the late Kim.

The relationship between the two Kims took a dramatic turn in 1987, when the archrivals had to decide which of them would represent the democratic forces to fight against the old guard in the presidential election.

The then President Chun Doo-hwan handpicked Roh Tae-woo, his classmate at the Korean Military Academy, as presidential candidate for the now-defunct Democratic Justice Party, triggering massive anti-government, pro-democracy protests nationwide.

To help calm the protests, Roh promised political reform, particularly the election of a president by direct voting.

The majority favored the opposition. But the two Kims ended up splitting the vote, allowing Roh to be elected president.

Roh backed Chun's coup on Dec. 12, 1979, by mobilizing his infantry division from a frontline area to Seoul, after former President Park Chung-hee, who took power in a 1961 military coup, was assassinated by Kim Jae-kyu, the nation's spy chief, on Oct. 26, the same year.

In 1998, Kim Young-sam labeled Kim Dae-jung a "communist" after his son Kim Hyun-chul was imprisoned for corruption.

leeth@koreatimes.co.kr