This book is an English translation of the authoritative autobiography by the late South Korean President Kim Dae-jung. The 2000 Nobel Peace Prize winner, often called the Asian Nelson Mandela, is best known for his tolerant and innovative 'Sunshine Policy' towards North Korea.
Written in the five years between the end of his presidency and his death in 2009, this book offers a poignant first-hand account of Korea's turbulent modern history. It spans the pivotal time span between the Japanese colonial period (1910-1945) and reconciliation in the Korean Peninsula (2000-2009). In between are insightful insider descriptions of everything from wars and dictatorships to the hopeful period of economic recovery, blooming democracy, peace, and reconciliation.
Conscience in Action serves as an intimate record of the Korean people's persistent and heroic struggle for democracy and peace. It is also an inspiring story of an extraordinary individual whose formidable perseverance and selfless dedication to the values he believed in led him to triumph despite more than four decades of extreme persecution.
Often called Nelson Mandela of Asia, Kim Dae-jung (1924 - 2009) was the eighth President of South Korea (1998-2003) and was awarded the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his role in the advancement of peace and human rights in the Korean Peninsula and around the world.
Seung-hee Jeon is one of the leading contemporary translators of Korean literature as well as a literary scholar and critic. Her translations include the 2016 Man Booker Prize-winning novelist Han Kang's Convalescence (2013) and Bang Hyeon-seok's novel, Time to Eat Lobster (2016), which was selected for '75 Notable Translations of the Year' by World Literature Today. She has been honored with a Fulbright Grant, a Korea Foundation Fellowship, and two Daesan Foundation Translation grants (2011 and 2016). She is a lecturer at Boston College in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
