NOBEL PEACE PRIZE
October 13, 2000

Kim Dae Jung, president of South Korea, 76 Selig Harrison of The Century Foundation's Korea Project discusses Kim Dae Jung's Nobel Peace Prize.

Online Special: 2000 Nobel Prizes Oct. 10, 2000: Nobel Prize winners MacDiarmid and Kroemer talk about their research. Oct. 9, 2000: A discussion with Nobel Prize winner Paul Greengard. June 14, 2000: North and South Korea's leaders meet in Pyongyang. June 9, 1998: An interview with President Kim Dae Jung. An Online Special on the 1999 Nobel Prizes Browse the NewsHour's coverage of Asia.     The Nobel Foundation Republic of Korea Embassy in Washington, D.C.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded South Korean President Kim Dae Jung the Nobel Peace Prize Oct. 13. While citing Kim's work for democracy and human rights in South Korea and East Asia, the committee especially praised Kim and his "sunshine policy" for attempting "to overcome more than 50 years of war and hostility between North and South Korea." In June Kim traveled to Pyongyang to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. Their meeting spurred a process of reconciliation on the Korean peninsula. Since the visit, the countries have organized a cross-border reunion of separated families, opened border liaison offices and marched together at the Olympic Games in Sydney. The Nobel committee also acknowledged "the contributions made by North Korea's and other countries' leaders to advance reconciliation and possible reunification." Kim, a longtime dissident under authoritarian rule, won South Korea's presidency in 1997. He first gained a seat in parliament in 1961, and as an opposition leader survived a kidnapping, a death sentence, assassination attempts, three presidential election losses, and more than seven years in prison or house arrest and four years of exile.