Kim promised a welfare-oriented "mass economy" and also advocated easing tensions with North Korea, while predicting correctly that if Park was reelected, he would become a "generalissimo".

[11] His staunchest support came from his home region of Jeolla, where he reliably garnered upwards of 95% of the popular vote, a record that has remained unsurpassed in South Korean politics.

[13] Shortly after, he left for Japan and began an exile movement as President Park launched a self-coup and introduced the dictatorial Yushin Constitution of 1972.

Kim was almost killed in August 1973, when he was kidnapped from a hotel in Tokyo by KCIA agents in response to his criticism of President Park's yushin program, which granted near-dictatorial powers.

[11] In the wake of the coup, Chun's regime began a new wave of repression, falsely accusing Kim of instigating the May 1980 popular uprising in Gwangju, his political stronghold, and arrested him on charges of sedition and conspiracy.

[18] Pope John Paul II sent a letter to then-South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan on 11 December 1980, asking for clemency for Kim, a Catholic.

[19] American intelligence understood that Chun wanted Kim's execution to take place during the U.S. presidential transition between the outgoing president Jimmy Carter and president-elect Ronald Reagan.

The outgoing Carter Administration, which had poor relations with the South Korean government, asked Reagan's incoming National Security Advisor Richard V. Allen to intervene.

[23] During his period abroad, he authored a number of opinion pieces in leading western newspapers that were sharply critical of the South Korean government.

On 30 March 1983, Kim presented a speech on human rights and democracy at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia and accepted an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by the institution.

Two years later, in February 1985, he returned to his homeland, accompanied by thirty-seven supporters, including Patricia M. Derian, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights, two congressmen, and a number of other prominent Americans.

[11] Following the ruling government's drubbing in the 1985 South Korean legislative election, Chun lifted the ban on fourteen opposition politicians, but not for Kim Dae-jung.

In July 2019, according to American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) documents obtained by Hong Kong's South China Morning Post through a freedom of information request, the military-backed ruling forces drew up detailed plans to fix the election result in case Roh lost.

Initially trailing heavily in the polls and seen by some as a perennial candidate, his situation became favorable when the public revolted against the incumbent conservative Kim Young-sam government in the wake of the nation's economic collapse in the Asian financial crisis just weeks before the election.

[27] Lee Hoi-chang was a former Supreme Court Justice and Prime Minister who had graduated at the top of his class from the Seoul National University School of Law.

Lee was widely viewed as politically inexperienced, elitist, and his inept handling of charges that his sons had dodged the mandatory military service further damaged his campaign.

His swearing-in as the eighth president of South Korea on 25 February 1998, marked the first time in Korean history that the ruling party peacefully transferred power to a democratically elected opposition winner.

[36] He vigorously pushed economic reform and restructuring recommended by the International Monetary Fund, in the process significantly altering the landscape of South Korean economy.

[37][9][38][39] Immediately after taking office, the Kim Dae-jung government pushed for revision of the Outside Auditor Law to facilitate the adoption of consolidated financial statements in accordance with international standards, beginning in 1999.

Banks were directed to negotiate financial restructuring agreements with chaebol groups to reduce any outstanding debts, including closing insolvent firms.

For example, when LG Group objected to Hyundai taking the controlling share and decided to pull out in the midst of merger negotiations, the newly created Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) immediately called in LG Group's creditors to discuss punitive measures, including immediate suspension of credit and recall of existing loans and threatened to conduct a tax probe.

Therefore, the largest changes made in this period were reforms in chaebol corporate governance through consolidated financial statements, independent external audits and reduction of intra-group mutual payment guarantees.

[46][47] Today, South Korea is one of the most technologically developed countries in the world and has a well-connected cyberinfrastructure which began to be built and fostered under President Kim.

To deal with the expected large-scale layoffs from the economic crisis and restructuring process, the government also pledged to strengthen and expand the coverage of unemployment insurance.

And in this regard, Park Jie-won was charged with violating domestic laws on foreign exchange trade and inter-Korean cooperation affairs while orchestrating covert money transfers by Hyundai to North Korea.

Kim appointed Lee Han-dong, ULD president, as the new prime minister in a bid to mend fences and continue a governing majority against the GNP.

Economic reform plans and engagement policies pursued by the administration simultaneously achieved mixed results until the end of his term one and a half years later.

Kim called for restraint against the North Koreans for detonating a nuclear weapon and defended the continued Sunshine Policy towards Pyongyang to defuse the crisis.

"[64] Kim died on 18 August 2009, at 13:43 KST, at Severance Hospital of Yonsei University in Seoul aged 85 years old, three months after his successor Roh Moo-hyun.

[72] A Gallup Korea poll in October 2021 showed Kim, Roh Moo-hyun, and Park Chung Hee as the most highly rated presidents of South Korean history in terms of leaving a positive legacy.