At 82, Kim Dae-jung could tell you about surviving five assassination attempts, spending six years in prison, getting kidnapped, gagged and almost thrown off a ship by a dictator’s thugs. Kim could describe the terror of a death sentence, the thrill of winning South Korea’s presidency and the triumph of receiving the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize.

But in Portland last week, aides only reluctantly granted an interview as the former president prepared in his hotel room for a ceremony and then kidney dialysis – a procedure he endures twice a week.

Dapper in a gray pinstripe suit and a pink-and-blue-striped shirt, Kim sat ramrod straight in an upholstered chair. His cane rested on a coffee table. His black loafers gleamed.

Asked where he found the energy to give four speeches in Portland, Kim spoke softly, gazing straight ahead.

“As long as my life goes on,” he said, “I will have interest in working for peace, not only on the Korean Peninsula but throughout the world.”

Kim completed his five-year presidential term amid controversy in 2003, with two sons imprisoned for corruption. But he is most famous for launching the “sunshine policy” of openness toward his country’s archrival, North Korea. That policy of engagement, which won him the Nobel for his breakthrough peace summit with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-il, has largely continued.

Even President Bush, who included North Korea in his 2002 “axis of evil” speech, eventually saw the diplomatic light, Kim said. Bush, he said, is starting to see a “glimmer” of hope.

Kim waved off concerns over stalled six-nation talks on North Korean nuclear disarmament. He noted a recent U.S.-North Korean meeting in Singapore designed to break the impasse.

“In the past,” Kim said, “the U.S. tried to change communist and Stalinist countries with force and containment policies. It was not successful.

“The same with China and Vietnam. Now those societies are changing dramatically. We haven’t changed countries through war.”

Now, North Korea faces yet another food crisis, according to a warning issued Wednesday. Already, United Nations World Food Program officials said, about 6.5 million people in the nation of 23 million are short of food. As many as 2 million people died during a 1990s famine.

“It is true that North Korea is suffering from food shortage,” Kim said. “However, this is something they’ve endured in the past.” He noted plans for renewed international food aid.

“The overall prospect of North Korea’s economic situation seems not quite bad. Seems OK.”