Late Pres. Kim Dae-jung exchanged letters with Biden in the 1980s

Letters exchanged between late former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and U.S. President-elect Joe Biden in the 1980s have been disclosed. 　

“We are disclosing a letter that then-Senator Joe Biden sent to former President Kim Dae-jung in 1983 and a letter that Kim sent in 1984 for the first time,” announced Yonsei University’s Kim Dae-jung Presidential Library and Museum along with two copies of letters on Monday. 　

“Thank you for sending me information on United States attitudes toward the building of a democratic Korea. I appreciate your efforts,” says Biden in the letter in September 1983. Kim, who lived overseas in exile from December 1982 to February 1985, is known to have sent well-known persons in the U.S. his speeches wrote in the theme of democratization of Korea and foreign policy of the U.S. The letter from Biden was a reply to this. 　

Kim wrote another letter to Biden in February 1984. “One of my concerns is that most of our people may become critical of the United States and some may even become openly anti-American,” he said in the letter. “I would like to have the opportunity of meeting with you to discuss this urgent issue.”


ksy@donga.com