Editing Kim Dae-jung (section)

===Death sentence and exile===
Kim had his political rights briefly restored in December 1979 by acting President [[Choi Kyu-hah]] after [[assassination of Park Chung-hee|Park was assassinated]], shortly before the [[Coup d'état of December Twelfth]] by Major General [[Chun Doo-hwan]].<ref name="dem profile"/>

In the wake of the coup, Chun's regime began a new wave of repression, falsely accusing Kim of instigating the May 1980 [[Gwangju massacre|popular uprising]] in [[Gwangju]], his political stronghold, and arrested him on charges of [[sedition]] and conspiracy. He was sentenced to death in September 1980.<ref name="NYT Obit">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/world/asia/19kim.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all |title=Kim Dae-jung, 83, Ex-President of South Korea, Dies |last=Choe |first=Sang-hun |date=18 August 2009 |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=18 August 2009 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120326162311/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/world/asia/19kim.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all |archive-date=26 March 2012 }}</ref>

[[File:President_Ronald_Reagan_with_President_Chun_Doo_Hwan_of_South_Korea.jpg|thumb|President [[Chun Doo-hwan]] visiting U.S.  President [[Ronald Reagan]] at the [[White House]] in February 1981. Reagan invited Chun, in exchange for Chun commuting Kim Dae-jung's death sentence.]]
Pope [[John Paul II]] sent a letter to then-South Korean President [[Chun Doo-hwan]] on 11 December 1980, asking for clemency for Kim, a Catholic.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/16073/john-paul-iis-appeal-saved-future-korean-president-from-death-sentence |title=John Paul II's appeal saved future Korean president from death sentence |date=21 May 2009 |publisher=Catholic News Agency |access-date=25 June 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407092426/http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/john_paul_iis_appeal_saved_future_korean_president_from_death_sentence/ |archive-date=7 April 2014 }}</ref> American intelligence understood that Chun wanted Kim's execution to take place during the U.S. presidential transition between the outgoing president [[Jimmy Carter]] and president-elect [[Ronald Reagan]]. The outgoing Carter Administration, which had poor relations with the South Korean government, asked Reagan's incoming National Security Advisor [[Richard V. Allen]] to intervene. Allen, not wanting the Reagan Administration to be blamed for the execution, told Chun that Reagan was opposed to Kim's execution. Allen asked for Kim's sentence to be commuted, and Chun, who was eager to seek American acceptance of his rule following the 1980 coup, accepted in exchange for an invitation to be one of the first foreign leaders to visit the new Reagan Administration at the White House in February 1981.<ref name="NYT profile">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/23/magazine/a-korean-exile-s-long-journey-home.html |title=KA KOREAN EXILE'S LONG JOURNEY HOME |last=Ungar|first=Sanford J. |date=23 December 1984 |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=4 November 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/kim-dae-jung-a-future-leaders-moment-of-truth/ |title=Kim Dae Jung: A Future Leader's Moment of Truth|date=24 December 1997 |work=Brookings Institution |access-date=4 November 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/05/113_50386.html |title=White House Saved Kim's Life in 1981|date=19 August 2009 |work=[[The Korea Times]] |access-date=4 November 2021}}</ref><ref>In the early 1980s Kim described this "intervention" at an Annual General Meeting of Amnesty International-USA. He was bound and naked, on the floor of a room with other dissidents awaiting helicopter rides out over the [[Sea of Japan]] where they would "disappear". A U.S. embassy official walked in, pointed to him, and said "Him, not yet."</ref> Kim's sentence was commuted to 20 years in prison.

In December 1982, he was given exile in the U.S. and temporarily settled in [[Boston]] and taught at [[Harvard University]] as a visiting professor to the Center for International Affairs.<ref name="OCGG">{{cite web|url=http://ocgg.org/index.php/643/0/ |title=Board of Advisors – Kim Dae-jung |date=n.d. |publisher=The Oxford Council on Good Governance |access-date=18 August 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090315030627/http://ocgg.org/index.php/643/0/ |archive-date=15 March 2009 }}</ref> During his period abroad, he authored a number of opinion pieces in leading western newspapers that were sharply critical of the South Korean government. On 30 March 1983, Kim presented a speech on human rights and democracy at [[Emory University]] in [[Atlanta]], Georgia and accepted an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by the institution.