Correction Officer, Laundry Shop Owner, Pianist Have Fond Memory of Late President
By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
Besides political and diplomatic heavyweights, former President Kim Dae-jung also maintained close relations with his neighbors and ordinary citizens around him.
Among them is Kang Bok-ki, 67, a former correction officer at Cheongju Prison in North Chungcheong Province.
In January 1981, Kim was imprisoned there after his sentence to death on fabricated charges of treason was commuted to life imprisonment. He served his term for 23 months until December 1982, when his sentence was suspended and he left for the United States.
"Kim was put in an approximately 3.3-square meter cell, cut off from outside," Kang recalled.
Kang said Kim received "special" treatment - in negative ways. "He was under tighter control than other inmates, and even correctional officers' entry into his cell was limited. While other inmates met their family several times a month, Kim was allowed to meet his family for 10 minutes, once a month. Kim suffered from the strict regulations, and so did we, the correctional officers, because we had to give such a harsh time to him."
Kim spent most of his time reading, he recollected.
The two kept in touch after Kim's sentence was suspended, sending New Year's cards to each other.
In 2000, Kang was invited by Cheong Wa Dae to Kim's Nobel Prize award ceremony in Oslo, Sweden. He was among 42 dignitaries from Korea who took part in the ceremony.
"I was deeply moved at that time. I thought he would get well again, and it is regrettable that he passed away," he said.
Park Byeong-seon, who runs a laundry shop near Kim's house in Donggyo-dong, Seoul, also expressed sorrow for losing his 30-year neighbor.
He opened the shop in 1977 and has done the Kim couple's laundry since then, except during the five years of Kim's presidency at Cheong Wa Dae and his house arrest in the late 1970s.
"My parents died earlier. After hearing of Kim's death, I felt like I lost another parent," Park said.
"I visited Severance Hospital in the morning on the day Kim passed away. If I had known he would, I would have visited his ward."
Park, who visited Kim's residence countless times to receive and return laundry, said, "I did not have much conversation with the former president. But whenever he saw me, he smiled and said 'thank you' to me."
Kim sent a set of his pajamas to Park just before being hospitalized last month, and it became the last piece of his laundry Park would wash. Kim planned to wear it at the hospital instead of a patient robe upon getting well, according to his aides.
"I hope he will live in a painless world in the future life," Park said.
Pianist Lee Hee-ah, who has four fingers, paid her tribute to the late President at the memorial altar in the hospital, Wednesday.
"I played the piano at Cheong Wa Dae during his term, and Kim told me that he was touched. When I met him again in 2000, I congratulated him on his Nobel Prize, and he asked me whether I was practicing the piano hard," she said.
"I hope he will pray for the country in heaven," Lee said.