Editing Kim Dae-jung (section)

===1973 kidnapping by KCIA===
{{Main|Kidnapping of Kim Dae-jung}}
Kim was almost killed in August 1973, when he was kidnapped from a hotel in Tokyo by [[National Intelligence Service (South Korea)|KCIA]] agents in response to his criticism of President Park's ''[[Yusin Constitution|yushin]]'' program, which granted near-dictatorial powers. Years later, Kim reflected on these events during his 2000 [[Nobel Peace Prize]] lecture:

{{Blockquote|I have lived, and continue to live, in the belief that God is always with me. I know this from experience. In August of 1973, while exiled in Japan, I was kidnapped from my hotel room in Tokyo by intelligence agents of the then military government of South Korea. The news of the incident startled the world. The agents took me to their boat at anchor along the seashore. They tied me up, blinded me, and stuffed my mouth. Just when they were about to throw me overboard, Jesus Christ appeared before me with such clarity. I clung to him and begged him to save me. At that very moment, an airplane was sent down from Heavens by the almighty God Himself to rescue me from the moment of death.|Kim Dae-jung<ref name="Kim Dae-jung - Nobel Lecture">{{cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2000/dae-jung-lecture.html |title=Kim Dae-jung – Nobel Lecture |year=2000 |publisher=The Nobel Foundation |access-date=21 June 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120511233503/http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2000/dae-jung-lecture.html |archive-date=11 May 2012 }}</ref>}}

[[Philip Habib]], the US ambassador in [[Seoul]], had interceded for him with the South Korean government; the "airplane" referred to was a patrol plane from the [[Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force]] which was tracking the kidnappers.<ref>{{Cite book|last1= Oberdorfer|first1=Don|last2=Carlin|first2=Robert |title=The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History |publisher=Basic Books|year=2014 |page=35 |isbn=9780465031238}}</ref>
 
Kim was returned to South Korea, then put under house arrest and banned from politics. He was imprisoned in 1976 for having participated in the proclamation of an anti-government manifesto and sentenced for five years in prison, which was reduced to [[house arrest]] in December 1978.<ref name="Nobel"/> During this period, he was designated a [[prisoner of conscience]] by [[Amnesty International]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/kim-dae-jung-human-rights-champion-former-south-korean-president-dies-20090819 |title=Kim Dae-jung, human rights champion and former South Korean president, dies |date=19 August 2009 |publisher=Amnesty International |access-date=11 May 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120305175148/http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/kim-dae-jung-human-rights-champion-former-south-korean-president-dies-20090819 |archive-date=5 March 2012 }}</ref>

In October 2007, the National Intelligence Service, successor to the KCIA, admitted that the KCIA carried out the plot. The NIS expressed its regret and had planned to kill and dump Kim into the sea. While the NIS panel said President Park "at least gave a passive approval", the panel added it could not prove Park directly ordered the kidnapping at the time.<ref>{{cite news |date= 24 October 2007|title= South Korea spy unit admits kidnapping Nobel winner|url= https://www.reuters.com/article/us-korea-spy-idUSSEO30328620071024|access-date= 27 October 2021}}</ref>