Sunday, South Korea held a state funeral for Kim Dae-jung, a former South Korean President and Nobel laureate, as tens of thousands of mourners filled the lawn outside parliament, reports say.
The solemn funeral was the first held at the National Assembly, where Kim, longtime defender of democracy and advocate of reconciliation who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to reach out to communist North Korea, triumphantly took the oath of office as South Korea's president in 1998.
The man who made history by meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in June 2000, helping initiate South Korea's first-ever summit for peace on the Korean Peninsula with the communist nation, also managed to bring the two Korea's together with his death Tuesday at age 85.
A North Korean delegation dispatched to Seoul to mourn the late leader met for talks with South Korea's president, the first high-level contact between the rival Korea's after many months of tension.
A strong opponent of South Korea's authoritarian leaders, Kim survived an assassination attempt as also a death sentence and endured much suffering, including torture and multiple arrests, while promoting his pro-democracy movement. He also initiated the "Sunshine" aid and engagement policy with the North during his 1998-2003 presidency.
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