The Sunshine Policy was the foreign policy of South Korea towards North Korea until Lee Myung-bak's election to presidency in 2008. Since its articulation in 1998 by South Korean President Kim Dae Jung, the policy resulted in greater political contact between the two States and some historical moments for the Korean peninsula; the two Korean summit meetings in Pyongyang (June 2000) which broke ground with several high-profile business ventures, as well as brief meetings of separated family members.

In 2000, Kim Dae Jung was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize as a result of the Sunshine Policy.

The term sunshine policy originates in The North Wind and the Sun, one of Aesop's fables. In the fable, the sun and the wind compete to remove a man's coat. The wind blew strongly, but the man clutched his coat and kept it on. The sun shone warmly, and the man voluntarily took off his coat to enjoy the fine weather. The main aim of the policy was to soften North Korea's attitudes towards the South by encouraging interaction and economic assistance.

Kim Dae-jung (3 December 1925 – 18 August 2009) was 15th President of the Republic of Korea from 1998 to 2003, and the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize recipient. He came to be called the "Nelson Mandela of Asia" for his long-standing opposition to authoritarian rule.

Kim was thought to have been born on 6 January 1924, but it is reported that he later changed this to 3 December 1925 to avoid conscription during the time when Korea was under Japanese colonial rule. Kim was born in Sinan in what was then the Jeolla province; the city is now in Jeollanam-do. Kim graduated from Mokpo Commercial High School in 1943 at the top of the class. After working as a clerk for a Japanese-owned shipping company during the Japanese occupation of Korea, he became its owner and became very rich. Kim escaped Communist capture during the Korean War.

Kim first entered politics in 1954 during the administration of Korea's first president, Syngman Rhee. Although he was elected as a representative for the National Assembly in 1961, a military coup led by Park Chung-hee, who later assumed dictatorial powers, voided the elections. He was able to win a seat in the House in the subsequent elections in 1963 and 1967 and went on to become an eminent opposition leader. As such, he was the natural opposition candidate for the country's presidential election in 1971. He nearly defeated Park, despite several handicaps on his candidacy which were imposed by the ruling regime.

Charles Rufus "Chuck" Reed (born August 15, 1948) is an American politician and lawyer. Reed has served as the 64th Mayor of San Jose, California since 2007.

Reed was born in Garden City, Kansas. Reed's high school basketball team became Kansas State Champions. He joined the United States Air Force in 1970 after attending the United States Air Force Academy. At the Academy, he graduated number one in his class and served as cadet wing commander, the highest position a USAFA cadet can achieve. Reed was only the 9th person in the history of the United States Air Force Academy to max out (top score) on the Physical Fitness Test.^{[citation needed]}

While in the Air Force, Reed attended Princeton University and received a Master's Degree in Public Affairs. Later, during the Vietnam War, he served in Thailand. He left the Air Force in 1975, having reached the rank of Captain, and attended Stanford Law School where he earned a Law degree in 1978.

After passing the bar, Reed moved to San Jose and began work as a private attorney. He specialized in environmental, employment, land use and real estate law, and commercial litigation.^{[citation needed]}

Michael J. Fox, OC (born Michael Andrew Fox; June 9, 1961) is a Canadian American actor, author, celebrity, producer, activist and voice-over artist. With a film and television career spanning from the late 1970s, Fox's roles have included Marty McFly from the Back to the Future trilogy (1985–1990); Alex P. Keaton from Family Ties (1982–1989) for which he won three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award; and Mike Flaherty from Spin City (1996–2000), for which he won an Emmy, three Golden Globes, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1991, and disclosed his condition to the public in 1998. Fox semi-retired from acting in 2000 as the symptoms of his disease worsened. He has since become an activist for research toward finding a cure. This led him to create the Michael J. Fox Foundation, and on March 5, 2010, Sweden's Karolinska Institutet gave him a honoris causa doctorate for his work in advocating a cure for Parkinson's disease.

Since 2000 Fox has mainly worked as a voice-over actor in films such as Stuart Little and Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and taken guest TV roles such as in Boston Legal, The Good Wife, Scrubs, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Rescue Me. He has also released three books, Lucky Man: A Memoir (2002); Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist (2009); and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future: Twists and Turns and Lessons Learned (2010). He was inducted as an Officer of the Order of Canada on May 27, 2011, for his outreach and fundraising work.