Kim Young-sam (born December 20, 1927 in Geoje, Gyeongsangnam-do) was the President of South Korea of from February 25, 1993 to February 25, 1998.
Kim graduated from Seoul National University in 1952 with a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy, and served in the South Korean armed forces during the Korean War. In 1954 he was elected to the National Assembly, and served nine terms representing districts in Geoje and Busan.
An opponent of authoritarian government, he resigned his National Assembly seat (though he later returned) when Syngman Rhee attempted to amend the constitution of South Korea and became a leading critic, with Kim Dae-jung, of the military governments of Park Chung Hee and Chun Doo-hwan. He was expelled from the National Assembly and banned from politics from 1980 to 1985.
When the first democratic presidential election was held in 1987 after Chun's retirement, Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung ran against each other, splitting the opposition vote and enabling ex-general Roh Tae-woo, Chun's hand-picked successor, to win the election. In 1990, he unexpectedly merged his Peaceful Democracy Party with Roh's ruling Democratic Justice Party (DJP). With this support, he defeated Kim Dae-jung in the December 18, 1992 presidential election to become South Korea's first post-military president.
Kim Young-sam attempted to reform the government and economy. One of his first acts was to start an anticorruption campaign, requiring government and military officials to publish their financial records, precipitating the resignation of several high-ranking officers and cabinet members. He had Chun and Roh arrested on charges of corruption and treason, winning convictions against both. Kim also granted amnesty to thousands of political prisoners, and removed the criminal convictions of pro-democracy protesters who had been arrested during the Gwangju massacre in the aftermath of the Coup d'état of December Twelfth, 1979.
The anticorruption campaign was also part of an attempt to reform the chaebol, the large South Korean conglomerates which dominated the economy. However, implication of corruption on his own part led to a loss of confidence; his new ministerial party, the DLP lost its narrow majority in the National Assembly in 1996. Kia Motors collapsed soon thereafter, setting off a chain of events which embroiled South Korea in the 1997 Asian financial crisis during the last year of his tenure.
Several large-scale disasters marred South Korea during Kim's presidency, including the Seongsu Bridge collapse and the crash of Korean Air Flight 801.
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