Kim Young-sam

Kim Young-sam (Korean: 김영삼; Hanja: 金泳三; pronounced [kim.jʌŋ.sam]; 20 December 1927 – 22 November 2015) was a South Korean politician who served as the seventh President of South Korea from 1993 to 1998. Kim was the first civilian to serve as president in the country's history.

Born in Geoje during Japanese colonial rule, Kim graduated from Seoul National University in 1952 with a bachelor's degree in philosophy. From 1961, Kim spent almost 30 years as one of the leaders of the South Korean opposition and one of the most mainstream rivals to the authoritarian regimes of Park Chung Hee and Chun Doo-hwan. He was elected to the National Assembly at the age of 26, the youngest in Korean history, and served as a nine-term lawmaker, working as a leader with Kim Dae-jung and the democratic camp. His art name is Geosan (거산; 巨山) and his hometown is Gimnyeong (김녕; 金寧). Elected as president in the 1992 presidential election, Kim became the first civilian to hold the office in over 30 years. He was inaugurated on 25 February 1993, and served a single five-year term, presiding over a massive anti-corruption campaign, the arrest of his two predecessors, and an internationalization policy called Segyehwa.

The final years of Kim's presidency saw him being widely blamed for the collapse of the Seongsu Bridge and the Sampoong Department Store and the downturn and recession of the South Korean economy during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, which led South Korea to accept tens of billions of dollars in unpopular conditional loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This caused him to have one of the lowest approval ratings of any incumbent president in the history of South Korea at 6%, from a historical high of 97%, until Park Geun-hye surpassed Kim at 1–3% during the political scandal in 2016. After his death, he has seen a moderately positive reevaluation.