BY MASAHIRO SHIBATA

The last Nobel Peace Prize of the twentieth century has been awarded to the president of South Korea, Kim Dae-jung. The committee cited three reasons for awarding the prize to Kim Dae-jung: his promoting of the democratization not only of South Korea but also of Myanmar; his achievement in defending human rights in Asian countries; and his furthering of detente on the Korean Peninsula through his historic meeting with the leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Kim Jong Il. Mr. Kim Dae-jung was the first South Korean to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the first Asian recipient of the honour since Mother Teresa of Calcutta, India, was awarded the prize in 1979. Previously, another Asian winner, in 1974 , was the former Japanese Prime Minister, Eisaku Sato.

As you know, Mr. Kim Dae-jung has devoted most of his life to the democratization of his country. Before the war, when Korea was a Japanese colony, he studied Japanese, and, as a result of Japanese policy, was compelled to change his name. It has been said that his interest in Politics springs from this time. He was first elected to the Korean parliament in 1961, but when, in 1971, he challenged President Pak for the presidency he suffered a crushing defeat. In 1973, he was kidnapped while staying in a hotel in Tokyo, and taken back South Korea, where he spent a total of six years in prison and a further ten years under house arrest or in political exile. In 1980, he was the victim of ruthless bureaucratic oppression and he was sentenced to death for allegedly plotting to incite rebellion, accused of being the ringleader of the Kochurian Incident. As he said later, looking back, "I was face to face with death five times." Since at the time, South Korea was in the front line of Cold War, the official excuse for treating him so severely was probably his insistence, from beginning to end, that there should be friendly exchanges between the two Koreas, the North and South.

After the Korean War of 1950-52, the Korean Peninsula was divided at the 38゜N parallel into two regions, North Korea and South Korea: The Democratic People's Republic of North Korea was supported by the Soviet Union while The Republic of Korea came under the aegis of the United States. The division symbolised the absolutely terrible scars inflicted by the War, which was itself brought on by deep-seated ideological hostility arising from an attempt at that time to bring about unification. The establishment of a heavily fortified border between the two halves of Korean Peninsula widened further the gulf between the two countries and led to acts of invisible armed confrontation, as well as espionage and the defection of North Koreans to the South. The world became convinced that the plea of Korean people for unity of South and North Would remain impossible to realise.

Throughout this time, however, Mr. Kim Dae-jung's conviction that unity was possible was never shaken. Either in prison or in political exile he worked at developing his original idea for the ultimate unification of his divided country. When, after his fourth attempt, he was elected President of South Korea in 1997, he characterised his ideas as a "Sunshine Policy." It has become part of his strategy for blasting a hole in the cold-war wall that has for fifty years divided thr two Koreas.

Kim Dae-jung's "Sunshine Policy" is his attempt to achieve coexistence with North Korea. Kim has also advanced this policy towards Japan. At the Japan-Korea summit in 1998, as a means of reconciling the two countries, he made the great decision to lift Korea's ban on the importation of Japan's popular culture; as a result a new era of friendship between the two countries began. It goes without saying that his "Sunshine Policy" was a significant factor amongst the reasons for his award of the Nobel Prize.

What gradually attracted People's attention was Mr. Kim Dae-jung's attitude: even though he suffered severe oppression, his indomitable will for the democratization of South Korea and for the ultimate unification of the Korean Peninsula continued to burn brightly, and combatively. Consequently, his actions were the driving force that led to South Korea's becoming a mature democracy. Yet while armed confrontation between North and South Korea continued, it seemed extremely unlikely that he would ever achieve a peace. Nonetheless, he blazed a path, holding on to his firm belief that, however miraculous any unification between the two Koreas might appear, it could be reached peacefully. A person who has great psychological strength and is not afraid of dying a martyr has by this means supported measures for peace and reconciliation.

Since Mr. Kim Dae-jung was well-suited to win this year's Nobel Peace Prize, we cannot but bend our eyes upon our own country and its domestic politics. We can recognise that our politicians have, in public, behaved disgracefully. When we regard successive Prime Ministers of Japan, we are bound to wonder if any of them have exercised true leadership or implemented policies promptly. We may also ask if any of our Prime Ministers have achieved outstanding worldly success. Unquestionably, no Prime Minister of Japan has exercised the resolute will shown by Mr. Kim Dae-jung, nor has one of them come up with any daring ideas, or sought to probe the immediate present or the distant past. Amongst recent Prime Ministers, the present Prime Minister, Yoshiaki Mori, has scaled the heights of folly. He also triggered the farce of a vote of nonconfidence in his cabinet. Since assuming the position of the Prime Minister, his flippant remarks, such as Japan's being a "divine nation," have diminished public confidence. The political practice of Japan is extremely dubious: in the present instance, the leading members of their party elected, behind closed doors, a Prime Minister who has no clear policies.

Japan anxiously awaits the arrival of a political leader who will have devised his own policies, and who, following Mr. Kim Dae-jung's example, will demonstrate to the full his ability, with unshakeable belief and indomitable bravery. We offer our sincerest congratulations to those neibouring countries where such a leader has appeared. Simultaneously, we cannot leave the present corruption of Japan's political life as it is. We shall go on being sneered at by hopelessly corrupt politicians. We must never indulge such people. The electorate should seek for Japan's Mr. Kim Dae-jung, and through the expression of their wills at an election help to fashion him into a leader capable of showing the way not only to Japan, but also to all the countries of Asia.