Kim Young-sam

Kim Young-sam (, ; 20 December 1927 – 22 November 2015), also known by his initials YS, was a South Korean politician who served as the seventh president of South Korea from 1993 to 1998.

From 1961, Kim spent almost 30 years as one of the leaders of the South Korean opposition and one of the most powerful rivals to the authoritarian regimes of Park Chung Hee and Chun Doo-hwan. He was elected to the National Assembly at the age of 26, the youngest in Korean history, and served as a nine-term lawmaker, working as a leader with Kim Dae-jung and the democratic camp. His art name is Geosan and his hometown is Gimnyeong . Elected as president in the 1992 presidential election, Kim became the first civilian to hold the office in over 30 years. He was inaugurated on 25 February 1993, and served a single five-year term, presiding over a massive anti-corruption campaign, the arrest of his two predecessors, and an internationalization policy called Segyehwa.

The final years of Kim's presidency saw him being widely blamed for the collapse of the Seongsu Bridge and the Sampoong Department Store and the downturn and recession of the South Korean economy during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, which forced South Korea to accept tens of billions of dollars in unpopular conditional loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This caused him to have one of the lowest approval ratings of any incumbent president in the history of South Korea at 6%, from a historical high of 97%, until Park Geun-hye surpassed Kim at 1–3% during the political scandal in 2016. After his death, he has seen a moderately positive reevaluation.

Early life and education

Kim was born on 20 December 1927 in Geoje, Geojedo, Keishōnan Province, Korea, Empire of Japan (now in South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea). He was born into a rich fishing family. During the Korean War, Kim joined the ROK Army as a student soldier, then he served in the ROK Army as an officer of the Department of troop information and education. In 1952, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Seoul National University.

Early political career In 1954, Kim was elected to the National Assembly of South Korea, as a member of the party led by Syngman Rhee, the first president of South Korea. A few months after his electoral victory, Kim left his party and joined the opposition when Rhee attempted to amend the constitution of South Korea.

In 1971, Kim made his first attempt to run for president against Park as candidate for the opposition New Democratic Party, but Kim Dae-jung was selected as the candidate.

New Democratic Party leader In 1974, he was elected as the president of the New Democratic Party. While he temporarily lost his power within the national assembly in 1976, Kim made a political comeback during the final year of Park Chung Hee's rule. Kim took a hardline policy of never compromising or cooperating with Park's Democratic Republican Party until the Yushin Constitution was repealed and boldly criticized Park's dictatorship, which could be punished with imprisonment under the new constitution.

In August 1979, Kim allowed around 200 female workers at the Y.H. Trading Company to use the headquarters of New Democratic Party as a place for their sit-in demonstration and pledged to protect them. One thousand policemen raided the party headquarters and arrested the workers. One female worker died in the process and many lawmakers trying to protect them were severely beaten, some requiring hospitalization. The YH incident garnered widespread criticism and led to Kim's condemnation, with an assertion that Park's dictatorship would soon collapse. After this incident, Park was determined to remove Kim from the political scene, like the imprisoned Kim Dae-jung, and instructed the South Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) to engineer such a move. In September 1979, a court order suspended Kim's presidency of the New Democratic Party.

When Kim called on the United States to stop supporting Park's dictatorship in an interview with the New York Times, Park wanted to have Kim imprisoned while the Carter Administration, concerned over increasing human right violations, issued a strong warning not to persecute members of the opposition party. Kim was expelled from the National Assembly in October 1979, and the United States recalled its ambassador back to Washington, D.C.,

House arrest The government's oppressive stance towards the opposition continued under Chun Doo-hwan, who seized power with a military coup on 12 December 1979. Kim Young-Sam was expelled from the National Assembly for his democratic activities and banned from politics from 1980 to 1985. In May 1983, he undertook a 21-day hunger strike protesting the dictatorship of Chun Doo-hwan.

Failed presidential run: 1987 When the first democratic presidential election was held in 1987 after Chun's retirement, Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung ran against each other, splitting the opposition vote and enabling ex-general Roh Tae-woo, Chun's hand-picked successor, to win the election. This was also despite support from the first female presidential candidate, Hong Sook-ja, who resigned her candidacy in order to support Kim.

Merged with the ruling party: 1990–92 On 22 January 1990, he merged his Democratic Reunification Party with Roh's ruling Democratic Justice Party to form the Democratic Liberal Party. Kim chose to merge with Roh's ruling party in order to become Roh's successor in 1992, when he became the presidential nominee of the ruling Democratic Liberal Party.

Presidency (1993–98)

As the candidate of the governing party,

Reforms The Kim Young-sam administration attempted to reform the government and the economy. One of the first acts of his government was to start an anti-corruption campaign, which began at the very top, as Kim promised not to use political slush funds. and removed the criminal convictions of pro-democracy protesters who had been arrested during the Gwangju massacre in the aftermath of the Coup d'état of December Twelfth.

Economy Kim was critical of the influence of chaebols on Korean society in the early 1990s, but was a firm believer in deregulation that heavily empowered "small[-] and medium-sized firms." During his administration, Kim viewed chaebols that monopolized importing certain resources or products and/or predominated certain markets they were "large enterprises" in as outdated parts of the era before his presidency and empowered by lax policies from the prior governments. Kim released his "100-Day Plan for the New Economy" for immediate economic reform, intended to decrease inflation and eliminate corporate corruption. Another Five-Year Plan was also implemented, to encourage foreign investment as part of Kim's internationalization and economic liberalism strategy. By 1996, per capita GNP exceeded US$10,000.

1997 IMF Crisis

Kim spent his final year in office, with the nation saddled and plagued by an economic crisis.

By 1996 and 1997, the banking sector was burdened with non-performing loans as its large chaebols were funding aggressive expansions. During that time, there was a haste by chaebols to compete and expand on the world stage, and Kim's 1993 financial reforms which allowed for the growth of merchant banks and short term loans fuelled increased borrowing by these companies. Many businesses ultimately failed to ensure returns and profitability. The chaebols continued to absorb more and more capital investment. Eventually, excess debt led to major failures and takeovers. The Hanbo scandal which involved Kim's son in early 1997 exposed South Korea's economic weaknesses and corruption problems to the international financial community. Hanbo was the first to declare bankruptcy in January 1997, sparking a domino effect. Kim's government was seen as indecisive in the face of crisis as the financial tsunami began. The next big chaebol to go, was in July 1997 when South Korea's third-largest car maker, Kia Motors, asked for emergency loans. The Kim government refused to bail them out on Kia's terms, and nationalized it in October 1997. The domino effect of collapsing large South Korean companies drove interest rates up and international investors away.

In the wake of the Asian market downturn, Moody's lowered the credit rating of South Korea from A1 to A3, on 28 November 1997, and downgraded again to B2 on 11 December. That contributed to a further decline in South Korean shares since stock markets were already bearish in November. The Seoul stock exchange fell by 4% on 7 November 1997. On 8 November, it plunged by 7%, its biggest one-day drop to that date. And on 24 November, stocks fell a further 7.2% on fears that the IMF would demand tough reforms. Other prominent chaebols were affected: Samsung Motors' $5 billion venture was dissolved due to the crisis, and eventually Daewoo Motors was sold to the American company General Motors (GM).

On 22 November 1997, Kim in a televised address to the nation, apologised and called for the nation to tighten its belts. He blamed companies for borrowing too much, workers for demanding too much pay and conceded that his government did not implement strong reforms on its own due to pressure from special interest groups. As a result, Kim became the most unpopular president in history with an approval rating of 6% , until Park Geun-hye broke this record with a 5% rating in 2016 before her impeachment. This is until she reached a record low of 1 to 3%.

On 3 December 1997, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed to provide US$58.4 billion as a bailout package. In return, Korea was required to take restructuring measures. In addition, the Korean government started financial sector reform program. Under the program, 787 insolvent financial institutions were closed or merged by June 2003.

The South Korean won, meanwhile, weakened to more than 1,700 per U.S. dollar from around 800, but later managed to recover. However, like the chaebol, South Korea's government under Kim did not escape unscathed. Its national debt-to-GDP ratio more than doubled (approximately 13% to 30%) as a result of the crisis.

North Korea

In 1994, when American president Bill Clinton considered attacking Nyongbyon, the centre of North Korea's nuclear program, Kim advised him to back down, fearing a war. A US aircraft carrier and a cruiser had been deployed near South Korea's east coast in preparation for a possible airstrike and the United States planned to evacuate Americans, including US troops and their families, Kim said in a memoir. He understood that South Korean cities would be bombarded first by North Korea in the event of a strike and thought it necessary to stop any move that could start a war.

Kim's government also undersaw the highly publicized demolition of the colonial-era General Government Building in 1996.

Later life and post-presidency (1998–2015)

Kim could not run for re-election in 1997, as the constitution limits the president to a single five-year term. His term ended on 24 February 1998, and he was succeeded by his political rival Kim Dae-jung who defeated the ruling conservative party in the 1997 South Korean presidential election. This marked the first peaceful transition of power to an opposition party in South Korea's history.

From April 2002 to 2007, he dedicated himself to research, taking up a position as a Distinguished Professor at Waseda University where he had previously (1994) received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.

After his presidency, Kim traveled the world promoting democracy, and speaking at events such as Towards a Global Forum on New Democracies in Taiwan in January 2007.

On 26 November 2015, a televised state funeral was held for Kim at the National Assembly lawn, It was attended by Former National Assembly Speaker Kim Soo-han, former President Lee Myung-bak, First Ladies Kim Yoon-ok, Kwon Yang-sook, and members of National Assembly. However, President Park Geun-hye, former Presidents Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo were absent. during which Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn delivered the opening remarks. Later that day, Kim was buried in the Seoul National Cemetery near former presidents Syngman Rhee, Park Chung Hee and Kim Dae-jung.

Similarly, in contrast to the years following his presidency, when Kim was seen as something of an embarrassment for many on the right, he is now seen as a figure that expands the democratic credentials of the mainstream conservative parties. In November 2017, then-Liberty Korea Party leader Hong Joon-pyo hung a portrait of Kim in the party headquarters alongside the two traditional conservative icons of Syngman Rhee and Park Chung Hee, and the portraits have been inherited by the People Power Party in 2023.

Personal life Kim was a member of the Chunghyun Presbyterian Church and was fluent in Japanese in addition to his native language, Korean. He was married to Son Myung-soon. He had six children: Kim Hye-young (daughter, born 1952), Kim Hye-jeong (daughter, born 1954), Kim Eun-chul (son, born 1956), Kim Hyun-chul (son, born 1959), Kim Sang-man (extramarital son, born 1959), and Kim Hye-sook (daughter, born 1961).

When he was in office, his public speeches were the subject of much scrutiny and his pronunciation of Gyeongsang dialect elicited both criticism and amusement. He once mistakenly pronounced '경제 (Gyeongje, 經濟: meaning 'economy')' as '갱제 (Gaengje: a Gyeongsang pronunciation of the older generation for '경제')' and '외무부 장관 (oemubu-janggwan, 外務部長官: meaning 'foreign minister')' as '애무부 장관 (aemubu-janggwan, 愛撫部長官: meaning 'making out minister')'. A humorous anecdote arose from another of his public speeches where audiences were said to have been surprised to hear that he would make Jeju a world-class 'rape' (관광, 觀光 [gwan gwang, tourism] > 강간, 強姦 [gang-gan, rape]) city by building up an 'adultery' (관통하는, 貫通- [gwantonghaneun, going-through]) > 간통하는, 姦通- [gantonghaneun, adulterous]) motorway.

Electoral record

Awards National honours

Foreign honours