Former President of South Korea and Nobel Laureate Kim Dae-jung, who fought for democracy for decades and urged communist North Korea toward peace, died of heart failure on Tuesday.

Kim was admitted to Seoul’s Severance Hospital more than a month ago for pneumonia.

He was the president from 1998 to 2003, and in 2000, he won the Nobel Peace Prize for promoting better relations between North and South Korea.

Before becoming the president, Kim struggled for decades as an opposition leader. He was a former political prisoner; he tolerated  a supposed assassination attempt, a kidnapping, constant arrests, beatings, exile and a death sentence.

Shortly after becoming the President, Kim enthusiastically met political leaders of Western countries in an effort to increase support for his “Sunshine Policy” to create relations with the North.

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