The sudden death of former president Kim Young-sam last week underscores how far the 1980s and 1990s have fallen into the past.  

To the large number of Koreans who came of age in the 1980s and 1990s, those years of economic growth and political democratization form a strong collective memory that informs their worldview today. Younger generations look at those years as an era that they learn about in history class; their world view comes from what came after. Kim Young-sam’s presidency (1993-1998) is important because it stands at the juncture of the recent past and the present.

Kim Young-sam is one of the “Three Kims” who dominated Korean politics from the 1960s until the early 2000s. Kim Dae-jung, the most famous of the three, followed Kim Young-sam into the presidency in 1998 and presided over economic reforms while engaging North Korea in dialogue. Kim Jong-pil, the last of the three, played key roles in Park Chung-hee’s government (1961-1979) and in getting the other two Kims elected president in the 1990s.

Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung cooperated in opposing dictatorship, but competed against each other in the 1987 and 1992 presidential elections.

Like the other two Kims, Kim Young-sam was a masterful politician who engendered loyalty in his long-time supporters. His base of support was in Busan and surrounding areas and among moderates in the growing middle class.

After his defeat in the 1987 presidential election and a weak showing for his party in the 1988 parliamentary election, Kim forged an uncanny alliance with conservative forces to prepare for a presidential run in 1992. His victory in that election marked the end of a series of presidents with military backgrounds. It was the first time in Korean history that a civilian had been elected president in a fair election.

After entering office, Kim Young-sam began a series of reforms to root out remnants of military culture and the corruption associated with it. This climaxed in the arrest, trial, and incarceration of former presidents -- Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo. The photograph of the two men holding hands in court has become iconic.

The Kim Young-sam years coincided with the end of the end of the Cold War, European integration, and strong economic growth coming from the digital revolution. It was a hopeful time that caused some thinkers of the day, such as Fancis Fukuyama, to ponder the “end of history.” The bursting of the dot-com bubble and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks brought this era to an abrupt end. We are still living with slow and uneven economic growth in the shadow of terrorism, as the recent attacks in Paris have shown.

At first glance, the economic crisis of 1997 that forced Korea to seek loans from the IMF appears to mark the end of an era, but that is deceptive. To be sure, the economic crisis forced rapid changes in the economy that caused significant dislocation. Under Kim Dae-jung, Korea recovered rapidly and strong economic growth -- much of it tech-driven -- continued until the middle of the 2000s. The Korea of today emerged during the recovery from the economic crisis.

Instead, the years 1993 to 2008 that began with Kim Young-sam’s presidency constitute a period of unprecedented optimism in Korean history. Except for the sharp retreat in 1997, economic growth remained strong, creating the large middle class. Building on democratization steps in the late 1980s, democracy and openness continued to advance. In these 15 years, Korea transformed itself from a new industrialized country with a weak democratic tradition to an advanced industrial democracy with growing soft-power influence on the world stage.

The years of military dictatorship from 1961 to 1987 saw millions rise from abject poverty as industrialization spurred rapid economic growth, but human rights abuses weighed heavily on the society. Economic growth slowed after 2008, creating a malaise that has been exacerbated by a perceived retreat in Korea’s commitment to democracy and human rights. And renewed tension with North Korea has dashed hopes of reconciliation.

Kim Young-sam was not as charismatic or visionary as his successor Kim Dae-jung, nor was he the best of crisis managers as his bumbled handling of the economic crisis in 1997 showed. Rather, he was an incrementalist who used his political skill to advance the important goal of democratizing Korean society.

At a time of deepening malaise, his life stands as a reminder that democracy in Korea is the product of a long struggle and that constant vigilance is needed to protect it.

By Robert J. Fouser

Robert J. Fouser, a former associate professor of Korean language education at Seoul National University, writes on Korea from Ann Arbor, Michigan. -- Ed.