Two Kims Finally Reconcile at Bedside
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
Former President Kim Young-sam finally reconciled with former President Kim Dae-jung Monday when he visited the Nobel laureate's bedside at Yonsei University's Severance Hospital. The reunion comes after a 22-year-long break in a friendship that started more than five decades ago.
The conservative Kim Young-sam met the liberal Kim Dae-jung in the hospital's intensive care unit and consoled his wife Lee Hee-ho with well-wishes for a quick recovery. Kim's visit was reportedly made on the advice of his deputies and was the first sustained interaction of the two since Kim Dae-jung's presidential election in 1997.
Upon meeting the pro-democracy fighter at his bedside, Kim Young-sam acknowledged that his visit symbolized the end of his animosity harbored toward Kim Dae-jung.
The two had been life-long friends and partners in pro-democracy movements from the 1970s until 1987, when they parted ways to both run for the presidency. Both refused to sacrifice their positions to create a unified campaign front, resulting in the ruling party's candidate Roh Tae-woo winning the election. Kim Young-sam vilified Kim Dae-jung as a traitor and pro-Communist sympathizer while Kim Dae-jung claimed Kim Young-sam had emotionally criticized him.
"I thought now was the time to have peace with former President Kim Dae-jung," said Kim Young-sam. "He and I have been comrades who fought for democracy for a long time since we were young. We worked together for some time and competed with each other over the past (two) decades," Kim told reporters after meeting his recovering counterpart.
The two leaders had met briefly on several occasions while attending ceremonies for major national events, but they were reluctant to even exchange greetings with each other.
Kim Young-sam later became president in 1992, as a governing party candidate, and Kim Dae-jung took the presidency in 1997 as a candidate for the main opposition.
Kim Dae-jung criticized Kim Young-sam while in office and called sitting President Lee Myung-bak a dictator after former President Roh Moo-hyun committed suicide amid investigations over a bribery scandal. Opposition leaders accused President Lee of being responsible for Roh's death, saying the investigation was politically motivated.
After retirement, Kim Young-sam is said to have underestimated Kim Dae-jung's winning of the Nobel peace prize and urged him not to criticize Lee.
Yet, throughout the years of avoidance and criticism, the two former friends have watched over each other to give help indirectly whenever possible. In 1997, then sitting President Kim Young-sam ordered prosecutors to suspend investigations over a slush fund scandal allegedly involving Kim Dae-jung, who was then a leader of the main opposition party. Kim Dae-jung later reciprocated the favor by giving clemency to Kim Young-sam's second son in 2000.
Kim Young-sam said Korea has been able to enjoy democracy due to their life-long dedication and struggles.