Kim Geun-tae, South Korean Democracy Activist, Dies SEOUL, South Korea - Kim Geun-tae, one of South Korea's best-known pro-democracy activists, whose constant smile belied his mental and physical struggle with the aftermath of torture he suffered from a past military dictator's spy agency, died here on Friday. He was 64. The cause was pneumonia and kidney failure, his family said. Mr. Kim had long battled Parkinson's disease and other illnesses that family members attributed to the torture he underwent as a dissident in the 1980s. His vivid description of how the spy agency tortured him with water and electric shocks for nearly three weeks in 1985 - some of the details hidden among songs in a cassette tape and sent to American human rights groups - helped set off an international outcry over human rights violations in South Korea. In 1987, while still in prison, Mr. Kim received the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award with his wife, In Chae-keun. The next year, he was recognized as the World Conscientious Prisoner for Political Reasons by the Hamburg Freedom Foundation. He was pardoned and released in 1988 by the government of President Roh Tae-woo as part of its efforts to burnish the country's international image. That year, Seoul hosted the Summer Olympic Games. He later became a prominent member of the South Korean government. "Mr. Kim was the living witness to democratization of South Korea; he himself was the history of democracy," Oh Jong-sik, a spokesman for the main opposition Democratic Unity Party, said in a statement. Mr. Kim was born on Feb. 14, 1947, in Bucheon, a city west of Seoul. He joined a campaign against the military dictatorship after entering Seoul National University in 1965. Over the next three decades, he was one of the most elusive dissidents on the military government's wanted list. Mr. Kim was a symbol of the suffering South Korean dissidents had to endure. "When I faced the shadow of death, I determined that I'd die standing, rather than begging for life on my knees," he wrote in his 1987 memoir, "Namyoung-dong," named after the Seoul district where the spy agency once ran a torture station. When democracy was restored in South Korea and Mr. Kim rose to political prominence beginning in the mid-1990s - as a lawmaker, cabinet minister and leader of the governing party - he never appeared to seek political revenge. When a former police sergeant who had tortured many dissidents, including Mr. Kim, was arrested in 2000 - after years of living in hiding - Mr. Kim said he had forgiven him. Mr. Kim was elected to the National Assembly in 1996 and won re-election twice. He served as health minister in 2004 under the government of President Roh Moo-hyun, and later served as leader of the Uri Party, then the governing party. He never achieved the influence of President Kim Dae-jung, who was better known internationally as a dissident. He was once considered a potential candidate to succeed Mr. Roh as president. Despite his soft demeanor, however, he stuck fiercely to his progressive beliefs, which limited his political chances. Mr. Kim retreated from public view after he decided not to run in the 2007 presidential race. Former Prime Minister Han Myung-sook, also a former dissident, said of Mr. Kim in a Twitter post: "When we feel no longer intimidated and enjoy freedom, we are all obliged to remember him." Beside his wife, Mr. Kim is survived by a son, Byong-joon, and a daughter, Byong-min.