South Korea has lost a great political leader. Former President Kim Dae Jung died Tuesday of multiple organ failure in a Seoul hospital at the age of 85. The 2000 Nobel Peace Prize winner, who tirelessly promoted the cause of reconciliation and cooperation between the North and South and played a critical role in the holding of the first inter-Korea summit in 2000, has left behind an enduring legacy.

While considered a shrewd political realist, Mr. Kim, as an opposition politician, was a man of indomitable spirit who never gave up even while being severely persecuted by successive authoritarian regimes. He spent six years in prison and lived for 40 years either under house arrest or in exile. His dedication to the struggle for democracy in South Korea was second to none.

He will also be remembered for his efforts to promote friendly ties between South Korea and Japan. In an October 1998 speech given at a banquet in the Japanese Imperial Court hosted by the Emperor, he called for building new relations between South Korea and Japan for the 21st century. His push for the gradual opening of South Korea to Japanese popular culture ultimately led to a wide exchange of pop culture between the two countries that continues today.

Mr. Kim's life was as dramatic as any Hollywood movie. By the president's own reckoning he survived five life-and-death crises and was imprisoned six times.

Born on a small island in Jeolla province in 1924 when Korea was under Japanese colonial rule, Mr. Kim was first elected to the National Assembly in May 1961. Immediately afterward, Maj. Gen. Park Chung Hee launched a coup d'etat and later became president.

In the April 1971 presidential election, Mr. Kim managed to garner 46 percent of the vote. But in the subsequent parliamentary election campaign his political foes carried out their first attempt on Mr. Kim's life. He and two aides were seriously injured when a truck rammed his car.

Another attempt on his life took place in 1973 while he was in exile. On Aug. 8, 1973, he was kidnapped from a Tokyo hotel by agents of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency. The agents were about to throw him into the sea from a boat but desisted when a U.S. military helicopter made a low pass over the vessel. He was later placed under house arrest in Seoul.

In March 1976, he was imprisoned for issuing the Independence Day Declaration for Democracy together with other prodemocracy activists on the first of that month. In 1978, he was released from prison but was placed under house arrest again.

President Park was assassinated in October 1979 and a coup d'etat led by Maj. Gen. Chun Doo Hwan took place that December. Subsequently, Mr. Kim was indicted on a charge of fomenting the May 1980 uprising in the city of Gwangju, which the Chun regime suppressed by killing many citizens. He was given a death sentence but it was later commuted to 20 years in prison. In December 1982, his prison term was suspended and he was allowed to live in exile in the United States. He returned to South Korea in February 1985.

In December 1997, he was elected president following three failed attempts in 1971, 1987 and 1992. His election marked the first change of power from the ruling party to the opposition party in South Korean political history.

When he took office in February 1998, his country was hard hit by the Asian financial crisis. He rigorously carried out structural reforms recommended by the International Monetary Fund and the economy grew more than 10 percent in 1999.

President Kim's "Sunshine Policy" emphasized peaceful cooperation with the North and included considerable humanitarian and economic aid. In June 2000, he flew to Pyongyang and held the historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. They agreed to build a peaceful coexistence that was expected to lead to peaceful reunification.

Perhaps Mr. Kim's biggest honor came in December 2000 when the Nobel Committee awarded him the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize "for his work for democracy and human rights in South Korea and in East Asia in general, and for peace and reconciliation with North Korea in particular."

The administration of the late President Roh Moo Hyun continued Mr. Kim's Sunshine Policy. A railway connection between the North and South was reopened and an industrial park funded with South Korean capital was established in the North's Kaesong area. Unfortunately, the relationship between the two Koreas has not developed as Mr. Kim envisioned, as evidenced by North Korea's nuclear tests in October 2006 and in May 2009. South Korean President Lee Myung Bak has adopted a hardline policy toward Pyongyang.

Although North Korea poses serious problems for regional security, all nations concerned, including Japan, should make concerted efforts to change the situation for the better by employing a trait that led Mr. Kim to the pinnacle of political success: perseverance.