스크랩 고 김대중 대통령과 LA Times 의 추모사(obituary in LA Times)

[왕짱구]

1925년 생으로 치욕, 환희, 자부심과 수치심의 소용돌이였던 한국 근대와 현대의 다분히 모순적인 역사적 흐름에 따르거나 역행하면서

고비고비 그 물줄기를 넓은 강쪽으로 돌려놓으려고 애를 썼던 고 김대중 대통령을 생각해본다. 내가 6년간 몸담았던 70년대와 80년대 초의

한국의 대학 어느 캠퍼스는 그 세월 동안 한해도 빠짐없이 학기 중에 - 심할 때는 몇달을 - 교문이 굳게 닫혀있곤 했었다.

그 만큼 암담한 시기였었고 그의 고초도 극에 다른 때였다.

그리고, 1980년대 초의 미국망명 시에 형성된 후원회인 "한국인권문제 연구소"는 지금까지 그 인맥을 이어가고 있다.

승리한 것도 패배한 것도 아닌 그의 인생이지만 남겨진 것이 많고 기억해야 할 것이 많기에 그의 인생 행로를 되집어본다.

항일 운동을 몸소하고 한국의 건국 대통령이 된 이승만 박사처럼,

김대중씨는 한국 정치상에 말그대로 민주화라는 세글자에 지대한 공헌을 하고 억센 운명을 이긴 대통령이었다.

그리고, 그는 남북 관계라는 부서지고 삐꺽거리는 모른 체하고 싶은 수레바퀴를 처음으로 힘주어 움직이기 시작한 사람이다.

이 두 가지 만으로 그의 이름은 오래 기억될 것이며, 20, 21 세기 한국 역사의 가운데에 서있던 분으로 이해될 것이다.

오늘 LA Times 신문에서 베이징에 거주하는 타임즈 기자인 바바라 데믹이 쓴 그의 추도기사를 읽었다.

그의 인생 역정과 외국에서의 그에 대한 평가를 공정하게 잘 정돈해서 썼다. 그래서 다른 사람들과도 나누고 싶어서 그대로 옮겨본다.

그리고, 간단한 번역을 곁들였다.

Kim Dae-jung dies at 85; former South Korean president and Nobel laureate

Kim was the country's most famous dissident when he became president in 1998. In 2000, he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his sunshine policy of engaging North Korea.

By Barbara Demick

August 19, 2009

Reporting from Beijing - Kim Dae-jung, a former dissident who survived three assassination attempts, one death sentence and six years in prison to become South Korea's president and its first Nobel laureate, died Tuesday in Seoul after a long bout of pneumonia. He was 85.

(3번의 암살시도, 한번의 사형구형, 6년간의 투옥을 거치고 대통령 당선과

 노벨 평화상을 수상했다.)

South Korea's president from 1998 to 2003, Kim is best known for the moment on June 13, 2000, when he stepped onto the tarmac at Pyongyang's airport with arms outstretched to embrace North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

(1998년에서 2003년 까지 대통령을 역임한 그는 평양 공항에서 김정일 위원장과의 만남으로 가장 알려져있다.)

That landmark meeting, which was supposed to end 50 years of enmity between the Koreas, won Kim the Nobel Peace Prize.

But Kim lived just long enough to see his "sunshine policy" unraveling as a result of North Korea's continued nuclear ambitions

and the installation last year of a conservative president in South Korea. The meeting in Pyongyang was only one of many dramatic moments in a most eventful life.

(그 만남으로 노벨 평화상을 수상했지만 최근의 북한의 계속되는 핵실험과 보수적인 지금의 정부로 인해서 그의 햇빛 정책은 퇴색하고

있었다. 평야서의 정상회담은 그의 드라마틱한 인생의 한면일 뿐이다.)

There was the time in 1973 that Kim found himself on a boat --

blindfolded and manacled, his limbs encased in concrete -- about to be tossed overboard by assassins presumably working for South Korea's military dictatorship. And there was his return from exile in the United States in 1985, when he arrived at Seoul's airport flanked by U.S. congressmen, only to be immediately seized and placed

under house arrest.

(1973년에는 눈가리개와 수갑이 채워지고 콩크리트에 갇힌채로

바다 고기밥이 될뻔하기도 했었고, 1985년에는 미국 국회의원과 함께

미국 망명에서 귀국했으나 금방 체포되어서 가택연금에 들어갔다.)

After four decades as the country's most famous dissident, Kim (often known by his nickname D.J. to distinguish him from other Kims in public life) became president in 1998. By daring to meet with Kim Jong Il, he established what many think is an irreversible course of rapprochement between the estranged Koreas. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for his sunshine policy of engaging North Korea and his lifelong struggle for democratization. But his final years were spent in frustration.

He was disappointed by Kim Jong Il's failure to reciprocate for the Pyongyang summit with a visit to Seoul, as well as

by the George W. Bush administration's skeptical attitude toward his efforts.

(40년 동안 가장 유명한 반체제 인사로 살다가 1998년에 대통령으로 당선되었다. 김정일 위원장과 화해를 통한 국교 정상화를 꾀하고

만주화에 공헌한 덕에 노벨 평화상을 수상했지만, 말년에는 김정일 위원장의 남한으로의 답방의 비실현과 부시 대통령의 회의적인

반응에 실망했었다)

Just five months after winning the Nobel, Kim was humiliated during a White House visit when newly inaugurated President Bush

was publicly dismissive of the idea that one could negotiate with the North Koreans.

"Although I understand fully why the North Korean leadership is not very likable, it is in the interests of global peace to pursue

the policy of dialogue," Kim later recalled telling Bush.

(백악관 방문 중에 부시대통령은 북한과 협상을 할 수 있다는 그의 의견을 공개적으로 무시했다. 북한 정권을 좋아할 수는 없지만

 대화를 계속하는 것이 세계평화에 도움이 된다고 그는 나중에 회고했다.) 

Kim also had to spend his later years fending off a series of political scandals. His youngest son was arrested on charges of

taking bribes from a lobbyist. The revelation that Kim's aides had secretly ordered the transfer of $500 million to North Korea

shortly before the meeting with Kim Jong Il led to charges that he had bought the summit and hence the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 2005, investigators discovered that this icon of democracy and human rights had allowed illegal wiretapping

during his presidency at a pace unmatched even by South Korea's former military dictators.

(또 정치적 스캔달을 변호해야했다. 막내 아들이 로비스트에게 뇌물을 받았다는 것과 그의 평양 방문 전에 비서가 북한으로 5억 달러를

전송했다는 사실과 독재 군사정권 때보다도 요인들을 더 많이 도청하도록 허락했다는 것이었다.)

Like former dissidents who became president -- Lech Walesa of Poland

or Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic -- Kim's image abroad was

always better than at home.
"The Koreans forgot that he was a champion of democracy and saw him just as another political boss," said Michael Breen, a Seoul-based biographer of Kim Jong Il who has been researching a biography of

Kim Dae-jung.
Kim was succeeded as South Korea's president by Roh Moo-hyun,

a similarly left-leaning politician who tried to continue

the rapprochement with Pyongyang. But the 2007 elections brought conservatives back in power.

(반체제 인사였다가 대통령이 된 폴란드의 왈레사와 체코의 하벨 처럼 그는 국내에서 보다는 국외에서 더 좋은 이미지를 갖고있다.

그의 뒤를 이어서 같은 좌파 경향을 가졌고 북한과 관계 개선을 하려고 애썼던 노무현이 대통령이 되었으며, 2007년에는 다시

보수정부가 들어섰다.)

North Korea's two nuclear tests, one in 2006 and a more recent one in May, have been viewed by many in South Korea as proof

that Kim's policies of conciliation were a failure.
Hahm Sung-deuk, a presidential scholar at Korea University in Seoul, predicted that South Koreans will come to appreciate

Kim more.
"His legacy will grow with time. Even if he made some mistakes, people appreciate his contributions to democracy and his handling of the economy," Hahm said Tuesday.

(2006년과 올해의 계속되는 북한의 핵실험은 많은 이들이 그의 화해정치를 실패로 해석하게 하고있다.

그러나 고려대의 함성덕 교수는 한국민들이 그의 업적을 점점 더 높이 평가할 것이라고 말한다.)

Kim was born on tiny Haui island off the southwestern coast of

South Korea, in Cholla province. He has said that his date of birth

was Jan. 6, 1924, although various later dates are often cited in official records -- discrepancies that opponents used against him

to claim he was dishonest. The most likely explanation was that

his family was trying to keep him out of the draft during the 1910-1945 Japanese occupation period.
When he was 7 or 8, Kim was sent to study the Chinese classics

with a village scholar. His academic abilities proved phenomenal,

and the family moved to the mainland port city of Mokpo so that

he could further his education. He became involved in anti-Japanese activities, at one point joining an underground group of young

communists who read banned Marxist texts. Despite scoring top grades through high school, Kim's father did not permit him

to attend university, insisting that the family needed him to get a job. Nevertheless, he remained an avid reader.

(그의 출생년도가 1924년이라고는 하지만 확실치 않다. 일제시대 때에 징병을 피하기 위해서 나이를 줄인 것이라는 해석이 있다.

하이도 섬에서 태어나서 목포에서 교육을 받았다. 항일운동에 참여했으며 한 때는 공산주의 금서를 읽는 지하조직에 가입도 했다.

고등학교까지 뛰어난 성적을 얻었지만 일을 하기 원한 아버지는 그를 대학에 보내지 않았다. 그러나 왕성한 독서를 했다.)

His first job was working with a shipping company in Mokpo. In 1947, he bought a ship and started his own company.

In that same year, according to Breen, he was arrested by a local detective who suspected Kim of being a communist.

He was held briefly, but there would soon be many longer stays under lock and key.

In 1950, when North Korean troops came swarming across the border, Kim was held by the invading forces for several months

before United Nations forces pushed them back.
After the Korean War, Kim had another setback. His first wife, whom he had married soon after high school, died suddenly,

leaving him to care for their two young boys. He converted to Catholicism, remaining devout through the end of his life.

He later married Lee Hi ho, a Christian activist, and had another son.

Kim is survived by his wife and sons Kim Hong-up, Kim Hong-il and Kim Hong-gul.

(그의 첫 직장은 목포의 운송회사였고, 1947년에 배를 사서 개인회사를 설립했다. 이 때에 공산주의자로 오인되어 지역 경찰에 잠시

체포한 것을 시작으로 오랜 옥고를 치렀다. 1950년에는 남침한 북한군에게 억류되었다. 전쟁 후에는 첫째 부인이 두 아들을

남기고 죽었으며, 캐톨릭으로 개종을 했고 크리스찬 운동가인 이휘호 여사와 재혼해서 셋째 아들을 얻었다.)

1982년 미국 망명 시에 찍었던 가족 사진

In the 1950s Kim caught the attention of John Chang Myon, a prominent Catholic politician, and began showing an interest in politics.
The emphasis in those lean postwar years was on rebuilding the tattered nation, but Kim didn't believe other values should be subsumed by the quest for economic growth.
"A national economy lacking a democratic foundation is a castle built on sand," Kim said in his Nobel lecture.

(1950년에 신앙이 깊었던 장면 박사의 영향을 받고 정치에 관심을 두기 시작했다. 전쟁 후의 경제 건설도 중요하지만

경제발전 만큼 다른 가치관도 중요하다고 믿었다.)

He won his first election in 1961 as a national assemblyman for the Mokpo district, but before he arrived to take his seat in

the National Assembly in Seoul, a general, Park Chung Hee, staged a military coup and closed the parliament.
A decade later, Park held a presidential election and opposition party leaders decided to bring in younger candidates.

Kim Dae-jung stunned the power establishment by nearly beating Park.

(1961년내 국회의원으로 당선되었지만 국회에 가기도 전에 군사혁명으로 국회는 해산되었다. 10년 후에 박정희 대통령이

대통령 선거를 열었고 야당은 젊은 후보인 그를 영입해서 거의 박정희 대통령을 이길 뻔했다.)

The same year his car was pushed off the road by a truck in what

he believed was an assassination attempt. He was left with a limp that gave him a peculiar Charlie Chaplin-like waddle. He left the country

the following year.
In 1973, he was kidnapped from a Tokyo hotel room, drugged with ether and dragged onto the boat where he was to be thrown overboard.
"I knew that death was only moments away," Kim later wrote.

"I heard them discussing how to keep my body from floating

to the surface if the sharks didn't get me first."

(같은 해에 그의 차는 트럭에 밀려서 길 밖으로 떨어져서 그의 다리는

찰리 채플린 처럼 절뚝거리게 되었다. 그 다음 해에 한국을 떠나 일본으로 갔던 그는 토쿄의 호텔방에서 납치되어서 배로 끌려가서

죽음의 순간에 처했었다.)

While the boat was sailing through the waters, a plane began circling overhead flashing a red light. Kim was taken back to South Korea.

He said later that he believed that the CIA had intervened, but

his miraculous rescue has never been fully explained.
Over the next 14 years, Kim was in prison, under house arrest or

in exile. He was given the death sentence in 1980 on trumped-up

charges of sedition. He fled to the United States for two years,

teaching at Georgetown University.

It was not until 1987 that he was free to establish a pro-democracy

political party.

 (바다 한가운데의 하늘에서 미국 CIA 가 보낸 듯한 비행기가 계속

빨간불을 번쩍이며 맴도는 바람에 살아나서 다시 남한으로 끌려왔다. 그 다음 14년간을 투옥, 가택연금과 망명으로 보냈다.

1980년에는 내란 선동죄목으로 사형선고를 받았고 이어서 미국으로 망명했다가 1987년에 민주주의 경향의 신당을 창설했다.)

In 1993, after losing his third race for the presidency -- after previous tries in 1971 and 1987 -- Kim announced he was retiring

from politics. He went to Europe to study Germany's reunification and said he would dedicate the rest of his life to

Korean reunification.
It wasn't long before he was back. He cut a deal with the former head of the KCIA, the intelligence agency that had tried to

kill him at least once, to give more conservative ballast to his ticket. Kim Jong Pil became his first prime minister.

(1993년에 세번째 대통령 도전에 실패를 한 후에 정계은퇴를 선언했지만, 독일에 가서 통일을 연구한 뒤에 귀국해서 한국 통일에 몸을

바치겠다고 선언했다. 그리곤, 한국 중앙정보부와 협상을 하고 우파 경향적으로 색채를 띄고 다시 대권에 도전했다,)

As president, Kim put reconciliation at the top of his agenda, not just between the North and South, but within South Korea.

At his inauguration, among the most notable guests were former strongmen Chun Doo-Hwan and Roh Tae-Woo, who

had ordered Kim tried and sentenced to death on the sedition charges.
Kim took office on the heels of an economic debacle in which South Korea, by then the world's 11th largest economy, had been forced to take a $58-billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund. The loan was repaid in 2001, nearly three years ahead of schedule, and Kim won high marks from the very business executives who had grumbled that he was a leftist who knew nothing about the economy.

(대통령이 되어서는 남북한과 국내 정치인과의 관계에서 화해를 도모했다. 당시에 세계 11번째의 큰 경제규모를 가진 한국이 IMP로 부터
580억 달라의 차관을 받았으나 3년 일찍 상환을 하면서 경제 대통령으로 칭송을 받았다.)

Kim came under criticism for being too lax with North Korea, turning a blind eye to human rights violations and propping up

the regime of Kim Jong Il with humanitarian aid and cash gifts.
Once out of office, Kim was bluntly unrepentant about charges that he had paid for the summit.
"When a rich brother goes to visit a poorer brother, the rich brother should not go empty-handed," he told the Financial Times

in 2004.

(그는 북한에 너무 관대했고 인권유린을 모른체 했으며 인도적인 원조와 현금 선물로 북한 정권을 도왔다는 비평을 받았다.

그러나, 그는 남북한 정상 회담 전에 돈을 북한에 준 것에 대해서 조금도 후회하지 않았다.

"부자 형제가 가난한 형제를 방문할 때는 절대 빈손으로 가면 않된다" 고 2004년 경제신문과의 인터뷰에서 말했다.)