Former South Korean President Kim Young-sam dies at age 87

Seoul, Nov 22: Former President Kim Young-sam, who formally ended decades of military rule in South Korea and accepted a massive international bailout during the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis, died today. He was 87.

The chief of Seoul National University Hospital, Oh Byung-Hee, said Kim died there early today. He said Kim is believed to have suffered from a severe blood infection and acute heart failure before he died. Kim was taken to the hospital on Thursday due to a high fever, Oh said.

In recent years, Kim had been treated at the hospital for stroke, angina and pneumonia, Oh added.

Kim was an important figure in South Korea's pro-democracy movement and opposed the country's military dictators for decades.

As president, Kim laid the foundation for a peaceful power transfer in a country that had been marked by military coups.

During his presidency from 1993-1998, he had his two predecessors indicted on mutiny and treason charges stemming from a coup.

Still, Kim pardoned the two convicted military strongmen, Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo at the end of his term.

Kim also launched a popular anti-corruption campaign and vowed not to receive any political slush funds, though this was later tarnished when his son was arrested on charges of bribery and tax evasion.

He led South Korea in 1994 when the Clinton administration was considering attacking Nyongbyon home to North Korea's nuclear complex north of communist North Korea's capital, Pyongyang.

Kim lobbied against the idea, fearing a possible war. A US aircraft carrier and a cruiser had been deployed near South Korea's east coast in preparation for a possible airstrike, and the United States planned to evacuate Americans, including its soldiers and their families, Kim said in a memoir.

A US airstrike "will immediately prompt North Korea to open fire against major South Korean cities from the border," Kim said his memoir, describing his dawn telephone conversation with President Bill Clinton in June 1994.

The crisis eased when former President Jimmy Carter met with the North's leader and founder Kim Il Sung in Pyongyang, which led to an accord aimed at freezing North Korea's plutonium-based nuclear programs.

That deal collapsed in 2002 when the United States accused North Korea of running a secret uranium-based program, sparking another nuclear crisis. After years of denials, North Korea announced in 2009 that it was enriching uranium, a process that gave it a second way to make nuclear bombs.

AP