DECEMBER 19, 1997. It was just a day after Kim Dae-jung was elected South Korea’s 15th president, replacing King Young-sam. The inauguration was still two months away, but Kim Dae-jung was ready to start rolling up his sleeves, given South Korea’s battered condition following the economic crisis. “I must be immediately involved in programs offered by the International Monetary Fund (IMF),” he told Tempo in Seoul, end of June.

Indeed, Kim