This 2000 file photo shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il (right) and South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung during a historic summit between the two countries in the North Korean capital city of Pyongyang. Kim Dae-Jung, a renowned democracy campaigner who survived assassination attempts and a death sentence to win South Korea's presidency and the Nobel peace prize, has died aged 85.[Yonhap/Pool/AFP/File]

As a key figure in South Korea's struggle for democracy, he survived several assassination attempts. In August 1973, he was kidnapped by secret agents at a Tokyo hotel, and in 1980 he was sentenced to death on charges of treason. The sentence was commuted to life in prison, and then to 20 years, before being suspended in 1982. Fifteen years later, the table was turned.

Marking the first time in South Korea that power had shifted from a ruling party president to a president from the opposition, Kim Dae-jung was elected as the head of state in 1997, just as South Korea was hit by the Asian financial crisis.

Kim Dae-Jung, Former South Korean President, said, " It is unbelievable. We have no money. It is all gone. "

Although his success in pulling the country's economy out of the swamp will be remembered as one of his major achievements,persuading Pyongyang to sit down at the negotiating table was seen as his more significant long-term legacy after his term ended in 2003.

Kim Dae-Jung said, "The DPRK's nuclear ambition has to come to an end. That way, we must resolve this peacefully through dialogue."

Kim Dae-jung's last year in office saw the launch of the Six-Party Talks to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, which took place in the Chinese capital Beijing.