Description
Inscribed to Senator Richard Lugar, The Diplomatic History of Korea by Woonsang Choi, including a letter to Lugar from the future President of South Korea, Kim Dae-Jung.
Octavo, xv, 179pp, [4]. Navy blue cloth, title in gilt on front cover and spine. No additional printings listed. Solid text block, appears unread. In the publisher’s dust jacket, no price listed, with sunning to spine and lightly bumped corners.
Inscribed on the front free endpaper: “To: The Honorable Senator Richard G. Lugar, Indiana / With my most cordial regards and profound esteem / Woonsang Choi, Author / September 3, 1987 Washington, D.C.”
Includes a signed letter from future President of South Korea, Kim Dae Jung, asking for Lugar’s aid in establishing Korean military neutrality during their upcoming presidential election. Just two months after the June Struggle of 1987, Kim Dae Jung wrote this letter urging Secretary of State George Shultz and the US Ambassador to Korea to support the protesting people of Korea, instead of glorifying Roh Tae-woo and other leaders of the Democratic Justice Party. The letter is signed by Kim Dae Jung.
Kim Dae Jung (1924-2009), was President of South Korea, and Senator Richard Lugar, Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, found common ground with Kim during his presidency (1998-2003), particularly regarding security on the Korean Peninsula and Kim’s pioneering “Sunshine Policy.” Their mutual involvement in nuclear diplomacy—Kim promoting peaceful engagement with North Korea, and Lugar co-sponsoring the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program to secure and dismantle weapons of mass destruction worldwide—highlights a shared understanding of the delicate security dynamics in the region. Kim won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for his work to promote democracy in South Korea.
