His Excellency Kim Dae-Jung President Republic of Korea

There are not many people in Korea who have lived a more dramatic life than President Kim Dae-jung of the National Congress for New Politics (NCNP). Kim, 73, more often referred to as "DJ", now has run for the presidency for the fourth and final time, since his first debut in 1971. This time he held his top place over the two other main candidates in all opinion polls for several months and through election day.

His education within the country ended with a graduate certificate from Kyunghee University in Seoul. Kim's academic career in foreign lands includes a doctoral degree from Moscow University and a research course at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom.

During his 40-year political career, Kim has been elected lawmaker six times and has been a member of ten opposition parties. Kim received major attention from the public during the opposition's presidential nomination race in 1970 against now President Kim Young-sam, by winning the candidacy in a dramatic come-from-behind victory. With this initial triumph in the nomination, he challenged then president Park Chung-hee as a single opposition candidate in 1971 and lost by just 946,928 votes. After a surprising outcome, Kim was forced to leave the political arena by the Park government and went into overseas.

After a military coup by then Gen. Chun Doo-hwan, he was sentenced to death. The sentence, however, was commuted. In 1987, he ran a second time for the presidency against Roh Tae-woo and opposition candidate Kim Young-sam. He took third place after winner Roh and the runner-up.

Following another failure in his third race in 1992, when he lost to ruling party candidate Kim Young-sam, Kim announced his retirement from politics for good and went abroad. Yet he reversed his decision and returned to politics in 1995, forming the opposition NCNP. Now, the septuagenarian won presidency in his fourth try. He was undoubtedly the most experienced candidate among the three major contenders and had been preparing all his life to become the number one man in the country. Kim has strong leadership capabilities, based on his charisma, and is supported by tens of thousands of loyal followers.

He is a very eloquent person and attracts positive public attention when making speeches.

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