A leading British daily has covered a story on late United Democratic Party standing adviser, Kim Geun-tae, who died from a brain disease last Friday at age 64.

Referring to Kim as the “godfather of Korean democracy,” The Times said Tuesday that Kim was a leading South Korean dissident and a leading figure in democracy movements. The newspaper reported that Kim was tortured for taking part in movements protesting the military dictatorship of the time and that he served as lawmaker three times.

It is unprecedented for a leading British newspaper such as The Times to write an obituary about a South Korean politician that covered more than one-third of a page.

The paper noted that Kim received the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award in 1987 and was recognized as the World Conscientious Prisoner for Political Reasons by the Hamburg Freedom Foundation in 1988.