Lee Hee-ho, who died last week at 96, spent a life breaking barriers. Being born and raised a Methodist never got in the way of her love of Kim Dae-jung, a devout Catholic she married in 1962. In 1950, she graduated from South Korea’s prestigious Seoul National University, with a degree in education — not an easy feat in a country that had just emerged from 40 years of ruthless Japanese occupation, preceded by 500 years of fiercely androcentric feudal Chosun dynasty. Soon after her graduation, Kim Il Sung’s North Korea invaded South Korea, triggering the fratricidal Korean War. Following the July 27, 1953, armistice that halted hostilities on the Korean Peninsula, she attended the now defunct liberal arts Lambuth Methodist University in Jackson, Tenn., obtaining a second B.A., this time in social science. In 1958, she received an M.A. in social science from Scarritt College in Neosho, Mo.
Upon her return to Korea, she became secretary-general of YWCA Korea and a feminist activist. As her husband turned into one of the iconic leaders of the pro-democracy movement in South Korea, her faith and devotion never wavered. Kim Dae-jung was ostracized, imprisoned, exiled, sentenced to death, and targeted in assassination attempts by South Korea’s authoritarian government. In 1997, he won the first election that brought a peaceful transition of power to the opposition in South Korea. As she stood by her husband, Lee Hee-ho’s resoluteness was tried again, as Kim Dae-jung steered South Korea through the tempest of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis.
South Korea eventually overcame the crisis, but it was changed forever. Discrepancies and inequalities that had developed as negative side effects of the “Han River Miracle,” South Korea’s astounding economic growth, were further exacerbated. During the restructuring and structural adjustment process, countless full-time jobs were replaced by less secure contractual positions, providing far less benefits and barely any job security. Businesses succumbed, jobs disappeared. The presidential couple effectively contributed to addressing all of the issues, on top of other lingering tensions, including inter-region, rural-urban, employer-labor union, and gender disparities.
Lee Hee-ho staunchly supported her husband as he initiated the “Sunshine Policy” of unconditional engagement with North Korea. Kim Dae-jung was fiercely criticized by conservative opponents for bribing Kim Jong Il to secure a historic 2000 summit meeting and a subsequent Nobel Peace Prize. The Sunshine Policy had two goals. First, over the short to medium term, change the behavior of the Kim regime through unconditional South Korean investment and aid. Second, over the long term, change the hearts and minds of North Koreans through economic engagement and exposure to South Korea and South Koreans. The first strategic objective failed. North Korea conducted provocations in the West Sea, and South Korean sailors died. Since 2000, North Korea has conducted six nuclear detonations and over 90 missile launches. Under the Kim Jong Un regime, North Korea continues to imprison 120,000 men, women, and children in political prison camps and to commit crimes against humanity, according to a U.N. Commission of Inquiry report. The second, long-term strategic objective of the Sunshine Policy never had the time to be fully tested. And it never will, unless the Kim regime gives up the tools of death targeted for elimination by U.N. Security Council sanctions.
After her husband’s passing in 2009, former first lady Lee Hee-ho continued to be a torchbearer of the progressive movement and hope for inter-Korean reconciliation. Perhaps hoping to resuscitate rapprochement, she visited North Korea for a second and last time soon after the death of Kim Jong Il in December 2011.
As thousands mourn her passing, Lee Hee-ho’s legacy is certain to be enshrined at the Kim Dae-jung Nobel Peace Prize Memorial Hall in Mokpo, South Korea. Yet she surely deserves a memorial of her own, celebrating her struggle as a pioneer advocate for gender equality in South Korea.
Greg Scarlatoiu is executive director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea.
