Nobel Lecture, Oslo, December 10, 2000
Your Majesty, Your Royal Highnesses,
Members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Excellencies, Ladies
and Gentlemen,
Human rights and peace have a sacred ground in Norway. The Nobel
Peace Prize is a solemn message that inspires all humanity to
dedicate ourselves to peace. I am infinitely grateful to be given
the honor. But I think of the countless people and colleagues in
Korea, who have given themselves willingly to democracy and human
rights and the dream of national unification. And I must conclude
that the honor should go to them.
I also think of the many countries and friends around the world,
who have given generous support to the efforts of my people to
achieve democratization and inter-Korean reconciliation. I thank
them very sincerely.
I know that the first South-North Korean summit meeting in June
and the start of inter-Korean reconciliation is one of the
reasons for which I am given the Nobel Peace Prize.
Distinguished guests,
I would like to speak to you about the breakthrough in
South-North Korean relations that the Nobel Committee has judged
worthy of its commendation. In mid-June, I traveled to Pyongyang
for the historic meeting with Chairman Kim Jong-il of the North
Korean National Defense Commission. I went with a heavy heart not
knowing what to expect, but convinced that I must go for the
reconciliation of my people and peace on the Korean peninsula.
There was no guarantee that the summit meeting would go well.
Divided for half-a-century after a three-year war, South and
North Korea have lived in mutual distrust and enmity across the
barbed-wire fence of the demilitarized zone.
To replace the dangerous stand-off with peace and cooperation, I
proclaimed my sunshine policy upon becoming President in February
1998, and have consistently promoted its message of
reconciliation with the North: first, we will never accept
unification through communization; second, nor would we attempt
to achieve unification by absorbing the North; and third, South
and North Korea should seek peaceful coexistence and cooperation.
Unification, I believe, can wait until such a time when both
sides feel comfortable enough in becoming one again, no matter
how long it takes. At first, North Korea resisted, suspecting
that the sunshine policy was a deceitful plot to bring it down.
But our genuine intent and consistency, together with the broad
support for the sunshine policy from around the world, including
its moral leaders such as Norway, convinced North Korea that it
should respond in kind. Thus, the South-North summit could be
held.
I had expected the talks with the North Korean leader to be
extremely tough, and they were. However, starting from the shared
desire to promote the safety, reconciliation and cooperation of
our people, the Chairman and I were able to obtain some important
agreements.
First, we agreed that unification must be achieved independently
and peacefully, that unification should not be hurried along and
for now the two sides should work together to expand peaceful
exchanges and cooperation and build peaceful coexistence.
Second, we succeeded in bridging the unification formulas of the
two sides, which had remained widely divergent. By proposing a
"loose form of federation" this time, North Korea has come closer
to our call for a confederation of "one people, two systems, two
independent governments" as the pre-unification stage. For the
first time in the half-century division, the two sides have found
a point of convergence on which the process toward unification
can be drawn out.
Third, the two sides concurred that the US military presence on
the Korean peninsula should continue for stability on the
peninsula and Northeast Asia.
During the past 50 years, North Korea had made the withdrawal of
the US troops from the Korean peninsula its primary point of
contention. I said to Chairman Kim: "The Korean peninsula is
surrounded by the four powers of the United States, Japan, China
and Russia. Given the unique geopolitical location not to be
found in any other time or place, the continued US military
presence on the Korean peninsula is indispensable to our security
and peace, not just for now but even after unification. Look at
Europe. NATO had been created and American troops stationed in
Europe so as to deter the Soviet Union and the East European
bloc. But, now, after the fall of the communist bloc, NATO and US
troops are still there in Europe, because they continue to be
needed for peace and stability in Europe."
To this explanation of mine, Chairman Kim, to my surprise, had a
very positive response. It was a bold switch from North Korea's
long-standing demand, and a very significant move for peace on
the Korean peninsula and Northeast Asia.
We also agreed that the humanitarian issue of the separated
families should be promptly addressed. Thus, since the summit,
the two sides have been taking steps to alleviate their pain. The
Chairman and I also agreed to promote economic cooperation. Thus,
the two sides have signed an agreement to work out four key legal
instruments that would facilitate the expansion of inter-Korean
economic cooperation, such as investment protection and
double-taxation avoidance agreements. Meanwhile, we have
continued with the humanitarian assistance to the North, with
300,000 tons of fertilizer and 500,000 tons of food. Sports,
culture and arts, and tourism exchanges have also been activated
in the follow-up to the summit.
Furthermore, for tension reduction and the establishment of
durable peace, the defense ministers of the two sides have met,
pledging never to wage another war against each other. They also
agreed to the needed military cooperation in the work to relink
the severed railway and road between South and North Korea.
Convinced that improved inter-Korean relations is not enough for
peace to fully settle on the Korean peninsula, I have strongly
encouraged Chairman Kim to build better ties with the United
States and Japan as well as other western countries. After
returning from Pyongyang, I urged President Clinton of the United
States and Prime Minister Mori of Japan to improve relations with
North Korea.
At the 3rd ASEM Leaders' Meeting in Seoul in late October, I
advised our friends in Europe to do the same. Indeed, many
advances have recently been made between North Korea and the
United States, as well as between North Korea and many countries
of Europe. I am confident that these developments will have a
decisive influence in the advancement of peace on the Korean
peninsula.
Ladies and gentlemen,
In the decades of my struggle for democracy, I was constantly
faced with the refutation that western-style democracy was not
suitable for Asia, that Asia lacked the roots. This is far from
true. In Asia, long before the west, the respect for human
dignity was written into systems of thought, and intellectual
traditions upholding the concept of "demos" took root. "The
people are heaven. The will of the people is the will of heaven.
Revere the people, as you would heaven." This was the central
tenet in the political thoughts of China and Korea as early as
three thousand years ago. Five centuries later in India, Buddhism
rose to preach the supreme importance of one's dignity and rights
as a human being.
There were also ruling ideologies and institutions that placed
the people first. Mencius, disciple of Confucius, said: "The king
is son of heaven. Heaven sent him to serve the people with just
rule. If he fails and oppresses the people, the people have the
right, on behalf of heaven, to dispose of him." And this, 2,000
years before John Locke expounded the theory of the social
contract and civic sovereignty.
In China and Korea, feudalism was brought down and replaced with
counties and prefectures before the birth of Christ, and civil
service exams to recruit government officials are a thousand
years-old. The exercise of power by the king and high officials
were monitored by robust systems of auditing. In sum, Asia was
rich in the intellectual and institutional traditions that would
provide fertile grounds for democracy. What Asia did not have was
the organizations of representative democracy. The genius of the
west was to create the organizations, a remarkable accomplishment
that has greatly advanced the history of humankind.
Brought into Asian countries with deep roots in the respect for
demos, western democratic institutions have adapted and
functioned admirably, as can be seen in the cases of Korea,
Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Bangladesh,
Nepal, and Sri Lanka. In East Timor, the people went to the
polling stations to vote for their independence, despite the
threat to their lives from the savage militias. In Myanmar,
Madam Aung San Suu Kyi is still
leading the struggle for democracy. She retains wide support of
the people. I have every confidence that there, too, democracy
will prevail and a representative government will be
restored.
Distinguished guests,
I believe that democracy is the absolute value that makes for
human dignity, as well as the only road to sustained economic
development and social justice.
Without democracy the market economy cannot blossom, and without
market economics, economic competitiveness and growth cannot be
achieved.
A national economy lacking a democratic foundation is a castle
built on sand. Therefore, as President of the Republic of Korea,
I have made the parallel development of democracy and market
economics, supplemented with a system of productive welfare, the
basic mission of my government.
To achieve the mission, during the past two-and-a-half years, we
have taken steps to actively guarantee the democratic rights of
our citizens. We have also been steadfast in implementing bold
reforms in the financial, corporate, public and labor sectors.
Furthermore, the efforts to promote productive welfare, focusing
on human resources development for all citizens, including the
low-income classes, have made much headway.
The reforms will continue in Korea. We are committed to the early
completion of the current reform measures, as well as to reform
as an on-going process of transformation into a first-rate
economy of the 21st century. This we hope to achieve by combining
the strength of our traditional industries with the endless
possibilities that lie in the information and bio-tech
fields.
The knowledge and information age of the 21st century promises to
be an age of enormous wealth. But it also presents the danger of
hugely growing wealth gaps between and within countries. The
problem presents itself as a serious threat to human rights and
peace. In the new century, we must continue the fight against the
forces that suppress democracy and resort to violence. We must
also strive to deal with the new challenge to human rights and
peace with steps to alleviate the information gap, to help the
developing countries and the marginalized sectors of society to
catch up with the new age.
Your Majesty, Your Royal Highnesses, ladies and gentlemen,
Allow me to say a few words on a personal note. Five times I
faced near death at the hands of dictators, six years I spent in
prison, and forty years I lived under house arrest or in exile
and under constant surveillance. I could not have endured the
hardship without the support of my people and the encouragement
of fellow democrats around the world. The strength also came from
deep personal beliefs.
I have lived, and continue to live, in the belief that God is
always with me. I know this from experience. In August of 1973,
while exiled in Japan, I was kidnapped from my hotel room in
Tokyo by intelligence agents of the then military government of
South Korea. The news of the incident startled the world. The
agents took me to their boat at anchor along the seashore. They
tied me up, blinded me, and stuffed my mouth. Just when they were
about to throw me overboard, Jesus Christ appeared before me with
such clarity. I clung to him and begged him to save me. At that
very moment, an airplane came down from the sky to rescue me from
the moment of death.
Another faith is my belief in the justice of history. In 1980, I
was sentenced to death by the military regime. For six months in
prison, I awaited the execution day. Often, I shuddered with fear
of death. But I would find calm in the fact of history that
justice ultimately prevails. I was then, and am still, an avid
reader of history. And I knew that in all ages, in all places, he
who lives a righteous life dedicated to his people and humanity
may not be victorious, may meet a gruesome end in his lifetime,
but will be triumphant and honored in history; he who wins by
injustice may dominate the present day, but history will always
judge him to be a shameful loser. There can be no
exception.
Your Majesty, Your Royal Highnesses, ladies and gentlemen,
Accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, the honoree is committed to an
endless duty. I humbly pledge before you that, as the great
heroes of history have taught us, as Alfred Nobel would expect of
us, I shall give the rest of my life to human rights and peace in
my country and the world, and to the reconciliation and
cooperation of my people. I ask for your encouragement and the
abiding support of all who are committed to advancing democracy
and peace around the world.
Thank you.
Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 2000
Kim Dae-jung
