Former South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung dies

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Former South Korean President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Kim Dae-jung has died. He was 85.

Local media reported that Kim died of heart failure on Tuesday. He was best known for implementing South Korea's " Sunshine Policy," which sought to establish closer ties with its northern neighbour, the DPRK. Let's look at the life of the late president, and how his legacy has influenced the future of the Korean Peninsula.

South Korea's presidential office said Tuesday that its fiorst space launch will be conducted as scheduled, despite the period of national mourning for late President Kim Dae-jung.

In 2000, Kim Dae-jung led an ice-breaking trip to the DPRK, becoming the first South Korean head of state to visit Pyongyang since the end of the Korean War,which divided the Peninsula in 1953.

Kim Dae-jung's visit, the first ever summit meeting of the leaders of the two Koreas, came complete with warm embraces and handshakes, and was the first of many good-will gestures toward his DPRK counterpart.

The meeting marked the culmination of Kim's " Sunshine Policy," that earned him the Nobel Peace Prize later that year.

In stark contrast to the light he brought to relations between the two Koreas, Kim had struggled through many long years of darkness before taking power.

Former South Korean President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Kim Dae- jung has died. He was 85.(File Photo)

As a key figure in South Korea's struggle for democracy, he survived several assassination attempts. In August 1973, he was kidnapped by secret agents at a Tokyo hotel, and in 1980 he was sentenced to death on charges of treason. The sentence was commuted to life in prison, and then to 20 years, before being suspended in 1982. Fifteen years later, the table was turned.

Marking the first time in South Korea that power had shifted from a ruling party president to a president from the opposition, Kim Dae-jung was elected as the head of state in 1997, just as South Korea was hit by the Asian financial crisis.

Kim Dae-Jung, Former South Korean President, said, " It is unbelievable. We have no money. It is all gone. "

Although his success in pulling the country's economy out of the swamp will be remembered as one of his major achievements,persuading Pyongyang to sit down at the negotiating table was seen as his more significant long-term legacy after his term ended in 2003.

Kim Dae-Jung said, "The DPRK's nuclear ambition has to come to an end. That way, we must resolve this peacefully through dialogue."

Kim Dae-jung's last year in office saw the launch of the Six-Party Talks to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, which took place in the Chinese capital Beijing.