In the last year of Kim Young-sam’s term, South Korea was hit by the Asian financial crisis. After Kim Dae-jung came to power in 1998, he implemented four major reforms in enterprise, finance, public sector and employment systems. During the crisis, Kim Dae-jung and his wife took the lead in donating gold jewelry collected at home. Kim Dae-jung succeeded in rapidly reviving South Korea's economy.
Under the leadership of Kim Dae-jung, the Korean people showed extraordinary unity in the face of the financial crisis. Many newlyweds took the initiative to cancel their honeymoon plans abroad to save foreign exchange for the country. Korean people also spontaneously launched the "Patriotic Gold Donation Movement". At that time, people holding gold jewelry and gold souvenirs could be seen on the streets of South Korea at any time, lining up in long lines to donate gold. Many people took out their US dollars and went to banks to exchange them for Korean won. Since the Korean government has long been committed to supporting the development of large enterprises, there has been an excessive non-market economy relationship between the government, enterprises and banks, bureaucracy and corruption have flourished, and the government has been inefficient. The outbreak of the Asian financial crisis fully exposed this shortcoming. In response to the social and economic development under the new situation, Kim Dae-jung proposed the administrative reform goal of establishing a “small but efficient service-oriented government”. To this end, he carried out administrative reforms in three aspects: adjusting the public sector structure, reforming the administrative operation system, and improving national services.
Between 1998 and 2001, Kim Dae-jung conducted three institutional adjustments aimed at transforming government functions to adapt to changes in administrative needs. These adjustments have strengthened the presidential authority, enhanced the cabinet's ability to regulate the economy, and strengthened the supervision of social functions such as food and drug safety, women's rights protection, and human resources development management. At the same time, Kim Dae-jung streamlined the number of government civil servants, reducing the number of Korean civil servants to the level 10 years ago in 1992. In 2002, the ratio of the number of civil servants to the population in South Korea was the lowest among OECD countries, making it a veritable "small government". In addition, Kim Dae-jung also further narrowed the scope of the public sector by actively carrying out the privatization of state-owned enterprises. By 2002, 74 state-owned enterprises in China had completed the privatization process. In addition, Kim Dae-jung has successively decentralized 138 businesses and authorities that originally belonged to the central government to local governments at all levels, effectively improving administrative efficiency.
In terms of reform of the administrative operation system, the Kim Dae-jung government has successively introduced and revised the "Responsible Operation Agency Establishment Law", "National Civil Servant Law", "Civil Service Remuneration Regulations" and "Open Position Operation Regulations", and passed Introduce an open appointment system, a responsible operating mechanism and a performance-based salary system to reform the organization and personnel operation systems. Twenty percent of department and bureau-level cadre positions are open to external recruitment, and non-government private individuals can compete with government civil servants for senior positions. The "open" personnel appointment system allows the government to increase professionalism by hiring professionals. The remuneration of civil servants is a combination of basic salary and performance bonus, which provides an incentive mechanism to improve the work enthusiasm and innovative spirit of civil servants. Some administrative functions are performed independently through the establishment of "responsible operating agencies." These institutions clarify their work objectives and personnel and financial status with their respective government departments through contracts, and have loose policies and personnel appointment rights. The results of the work of the Responsible Operations Agency are evaluated by government department heads. According to the "results management" system, the government can return all or a certain proportion of fiscal budget savings depending on the results of its work. Kim Dae Jung’s first wife was Cha Yong Ae. The two got married on April 9, 1945. After their marriage, they had two sons, Jin Hongyi and Jin Hongye.
Lee Ji-ho is his second wife. Kim Dae-jung and Lee Ji-ho got acquainted during the Korean War. Lee Ji-ho married the impoverished Kim Dae-jung despite family objections and shouldered the heavy responsibility of raising children, leaving Kim Dae-jung free of charge. devoted to political activities. Kim Dae-jung affectionately called her his "political comrade and life partner." He once told the people around him unabashedly: "At my age today, I can still proudly say that we are still a passionate couple, and we are by no means inferior to any young couple." Kim Dae-jung advocated equality between men and women. He moved countless times, but his and his wife's names were always written side by side on the house door. This is unusual in Korean society, which focuses on male status. Lee Ji-ho commented that Kim Dae-jung is "a man who knows how to respect his wife."
In the two and a half years from Kim Dae-jung’s arrest to his sentencing to death and his final forced exile in the United States, Lee Ji-ho wrote to her husband almost every day, totaling more than 600 letters. Lee Ji-ho said: "The purpose of my letter is to help him not lose courage and strengthen his confidence and hope." When the cold wave hit, she said to her husband in the letter: "I think of you living like a year, especially when the cold air hits like today. When I came, I was even more heartbroken. Thinking of everything about you today, tears flowed down involuntarily. You always think that I am a person without tears. In fact, I am a person who loves to cry in front of others. I tried my best to hold back my tears and swallow them. I was especially afraid of making you sad and vowed not to cry in front of you, but I couldn't control my tears today, not because my heart softened, but because of many people who were suffering. Appeared before my eyes."
Later, Lee Ji-ho published a collection of these letters, titled "Prayer Before Dawn" (this book is available in Chinese). At the book's launch ceremony in China, Lee Ji-ho, who made a special trip, told reporters affectionately: "I hope the royalties from the publication of this book can be used for the education of children in remote mountain villages in western China.
"The eldest son, Kim Hong-il, is a former member of South Korea's parliament. In 2006, he was sentenced to two years in prison with a three-year probation for allegedly accepting bribes. His position as a member of the parliament was also dismissed. Kim Hong-il suffers from Parkinson's disease. Some believe that his disease started in 1980 The sequelae of being tortured by the authorities in the 1990s, Kim Hong-il was exempted from detention because of his physical condition. The second son, Kim Hong-ye, was the former vice chairman of the Asia-Pacific Peace Foundation. In 2003, he was sentenced to two years in prison and fined 660 million won for suspected bribery and tax evasion. He was fined 50,000 yuan and was paroled on June 30, 2005. In April 2007, Jin Hongye was re-elected as a member of Congress in the congressional by-election, but was defeated in the 2008 congressional election. The third son, Jin Hongjie, studied in South America. University of California, and later worked as a researcher at the Pacific Institute of Pamona University. In 2002, Jin Hongjie was sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for three years, and fined 200 million won in 2005. In August, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Korea's liberation, Kim Hongjie was pardoned by the Korean government.