SEOUL -- South Korean President Kim Dae Jung returns from Norway and Sweden this week with his Nobel Prize in hand, having secured his place on the world stage. But at home, he faces a nation deeply divided over his "sunshine policy," deeply troubled over its economic prospects and enveloped in a social malaise stemming seemingly endless corruption and political scandals.
As pre-eminent statesmen of their times, both former French President Charles de Gaulle and Kim stand astride the world as giants, the former with his vision of a Europe "from the Atlantic to the Urals;" the latter with his vision of East Asia from "Singapore to Siberia" and a Korean Peninsula at peace with itself for the first time in more than a century. It is ironic that four decades later, judging from the outcome of the Nice summit, Europe is still struggling to implement that vision of unity; The two Koreas are beginning the journey down the path Kim envisioned.
Both men rallied their nations in crisis: De Gaulle in 1940 after the fall of France, catapulting his way to power after its liberation; Kim, after the 1997 economic crisis, paving the way toward inter-Korean reconciliation with his sunshine policy that culminated in last summer's historic North-South summit. De Gaulle never won a Nobel Peace Prize but he put his stamp on history in a different way as a warrior-leader during a time of peril for his country and humankind.