“Nelson Mandela” of Asia dies

The New York Times has great commentary on the life and death of Kim Dae-jung, ex-President of South Korea.

Kim Dae-jung, a dissident who survived a death sentence and an assassination attempt by military dictators before winning the South Korean presidency and receiving a Nobel Peace Prize, died on Tuesday. He was 83.

Once vilified by his rivals as a Communist, Mr. Kim flew to Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, in 2000 to meet that nation’s leader, Kim Jong-il, in the first summit meeting between the Koreas. That meeting led to an unprecedented détente on the divided Korean Peninsula, which remains technically at war because no peace treaty was signed at the end of the Korean War in 1953.

He was often praised by his Western supporters as the “Nelson Mandela of Asia,” although Mr. Kim had a more checkered reputation among his own people.