The South Korean statesman Kim Young Sam (born 1927) was a centrist and pragmatic opposition party leader. In 1990 he led his party into a merger with the ruling Democratic Justice Party. He was president of South Korea from 1992-1997.

Kim Young Sam was born in the southern island of Koje near Pusan in South Korea on December 10, 1927. He was first elected to the National Assembly in 1954 and was reelected seven times from his district in Pusan. He became the opposition party floor leader and subsequently party president in 1974 and 1979. For his opposition to the military rule during the Park Chung Hee era, Kim was briefly imprisoned in 1962. He was also prosecuted for his vocal criticism of the Korean CIA activities.

As a veteran opposition leader in the National Assembly, Kim was instrumental in bringing down the Yushin system of President Park in 1979. Throughout the 1970s Kim Young Sam campaigned...