So when the U.N. made a resolution and asked us to send troops to East Timor, we took this as a responsibility that we must take, and also this was t… - Kim Dae-jung

I agonize over the suffering that the North Korean people must be experiencing. Every time I'm having a meal and I leave some food, I think about how much this food could do for suffering North Korean children. I really do want to do more to help them, but again, with such negative public opinion in this country, it is very difficult to go ahead with assistance.

In China and Korea, feudalism was brought down and replaced with counties and prefectures before the birth of Christ, and civil service exams to recruit government officials are a thousand years-old. The exercise of power by the king and high officials were monitored by robust systems of auditing. In sum, Asia was rich in the intellectual and institutional traditions that would provide fertile grounds for democracy. What Asia did not have was the organizations of representative democracy. The genius of the west was to create the organizations, a remarkable accomplishment that has greatly advanced the history of humankind.

Many of the leaders of Asian society have been saying that military dictatorship was the way and democracy was not good for their nation. They concentrated only on economic development. I believe that the fundamental cause of the financial crisis, including here in Korea, is because of placing economic development ahead of democracy.