This book is an English translation of the authoritative autobiography by the late South Korean President Kim Dae-jung. The 2000 Nobel Peace Prize winner, often called the Asian Nelson Mandela, is best known for his tolerant and innovative “Sunshine Policy” towards North Korea. Written in the five years between the end of his presidency and his death in 2009, this book offers a poignant first-hand account of Korea’s turbulent modern history. It spans the pivotal time span between the Japanese colonial period (1910-1945) and reconciliation in the Korean Peninsula (2000-2009). In between are insightful insider descriptions of everything from wars and dictatorships to the hopeful period of economic recovery, blooming democracy, peace, and reconciliation. Conscience in Action serves as an intimate record of the Korean people’s persistent and heroic struggle for democracy and peace. It is also an inspiring story of an extraordinary individual whose formidable perseverance and selfless dedication to the values he believed in led him to triumph despite more than four decades of extreme persecution.

This book recounts the rise of Kim Dae Jung from an oppressed region of Korea, beginning with his schooldays, his activities in the Korean War and his entry into politics and concluding with discussion of his Sunshine policy, his summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Il and his drive for the Nobel.

Kim Kisam, a former South Korean intelligence officer, has collaborated with Donald Kirk, journalist and author, in a study of the campaign waged by Kim Dae-jung, the former South Korean president, to win the Nobel Peace Prize. This book, relying heavily on files that Kim obtained from Korean intelligence files before seeking asylum in the US, reveals an array of resources dedicated to the quest that culminated in Kim Dae-jung's winning the prize in 2000. The book details the strategy and tactics used to win over highly placed Norwegians and Swedes as well as foreign journalists with emphasis on the misallocation of resources. Most importantly, the book shows the relentless pursuit of the prize as the motive for bringing about the inter-Korean summit of June 2000 at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars paid to North Korea's Kim Jong-il – funds used to finance missile and nuclear programs that threaten the region and the world.

A biography of the man who survived imprisonment and attempts on his life during his efforts to bring democracy to South Korea and was elected President in 1997.