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At the height of his career as dissident and national leader, in Oslo in December 2000 to accept the Nobel peace prize, President Kim Daejung faced such bitter opposition on his home front as to threaten his efforts for his final two years, two months in office. "There is no question his popularity is decreasing," said Choi Jang Jip, a Korea University professor who accompanied the president on the triumphant journey to Oslo and on to Stockholm, in a conversation with me before leaving Seoul. "The declining economy is affecting the middle and lower class. The gap between rich and middle class is increasing."
The discontent of Koreans, fearful of a relapse of the crisis that almost bankrupted the country three years earlier, extended to the reason Kim Dae-jung got the prize - his success in beginning a process of reconciliation with North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-il, at the interKorean summit in June. "Citizens have an exaggerated impression and ask how we can do all this for the North in the midst of our own suffering said WI Pyoung Ryang, vice director of policy research at the Coalition for Economic Justice, a private citizens' group. "Some people criticize his North Korean policy for not having a consensus." Hardest to believe for Wi and others who saw Kim as having steered the country through economic turmoil was that many Koreans, notably conservatives who might form a majority of the electorate, did not think that he should have left Korea for the Nobel prize ceremony. "The Korean political situation has produced this reaction," said Wi. "People say the economic situation has gotten very difficult, so why is he going outside the country all the time?"
The question was such a topic of discussion that Kyunghyang Shinmun, an employee-owned paper that generally adopted a moderate editorial position, conducted an internet poll from November 30 to December 26, 2000, asking, "Do you think president Kim Dae-jung should participate the Nobel prize award ceremony or not?" Among 26,300 respondents, according to a note on the Kyunghyang Shinmun website, 66 percent were in favor and 30 percent opposed while the remaining 4 percent had no opinion. Respondents were far less enthusiastic about the government's efforts to implement the sunshine policy by...