HELLO from KOREA

By the mid-1980s, student demonstrators, workers, opposition politicians,
homemakers and other concerned citizens had coalesced in protest
against Chun. Their active calls for direct presidential elections and
democracy could not be ignored.
On June 29, 1987, the head of the ruling Democratic Justice Party
(DJP), Roh Tae-woo, issued the June 29 Declaration of Political
Reforms, which provided for the first direct election of a president in sixteen
years, but dissent between opposition leaders split the opposition
votes, and Roh Tae-woo was elected president.
A number of measures were adopted by Roh's administration to
strengthen the democratic nature of the government. Around this time,
September 17-October 2, 1988, the Games of the 24th Olimpiad were
held in Seoul. Korea's successful staging of the largest Olympics up until
that time signalled the Republic's emergence as a major player on the
world stage.
On February 25, 1993, the Kim Young-sam Administration was inaugurated,
marking the first time in more than thirty years that the Republic
had a president without a military background.
Kim Dae-jung was elected president in December 1997 and was inaugurated
on February 25, 1998. His "Government of the People" was created
through the first ever peaceful transfer of power between the ruling and
an opposition party in the fifty years of modern Korean political history.
Since its inauguration, the Kim Dae-jung Administration has sought to
engage North Korea through what is called the "sunshine policy." Thanks
to this policy, President Kim met North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, in
Pyongyang, on June 13-15, 2000, for unprecedented summit talks
between the leaders of the two Koreas.
The Roh Moo-hyun administration, or the "Participatory Government,"
was launched on February 25, 2003. The Roh administration, the 16th in
the republic's history, set forth three goals: "Democracy with the People,"
"Society of Balanced Development," and "Era of Peace and Prosperity in
Northeast Asia." It also announced four tenets of administration:
"Principles and Trust," "Fairness and Transparency," "Dialogue and
Compromise" and "Decentralization and Autonomy."
33 _ History