Former South Korean president and Nobel laureate Kim Dae-Jung has been placed on a respirator in hospital but his life is not in danger, a senior medical official said on Thursday.
The 83-year-old, a prominent dissident during decades of military rule, is conscious and resting with the help of sedatives, said the head of the company which runs Seoul's Severance Hospital, where Kim has been admitted.
"President Kim suffered from rapid breathing last night... We linked the patient to a respirator at 3:00 am," Park Chang-Il, who is also a doctor, told a press briefing.
"Since then, his condition improved and he is awake," he said, adding the oxygen in Kim's blood had returned to normal.
His close aide, Park Jie-Won, said the former president had been traumatised by the suicide of his political ally and successor, Roh Moo-Hyun, who leapt off a cliff to his death in May while facing corruption allegations.
"Following the death of President Roh, President Kim has been in bad shape," the aide said.
Kim served as president from 1998 until 2003.
He was taken to hospital Monday for a check-up after suffering from cold symptoms and a fever, according to Yonhap news agency.
On Wednesday he was diagnosed with pneumonia and moved to an intensive care unit, although he was not said to be in a critical condition.
"He has no complications but has been receiving kidney dialysis for a long time," the hospital's Park said.
Kim was also admitted to hospital in 2005 after showing symptoms of a cold and fever.
He met North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il in 2000 for the first-ever inter-Korean summit and was awarded the Nobel peace prize later that year for his efforts.
He survived assassination attempts, a death sentence, prison and exile under successive army-backed governments.
He returned home in early 1985 from exile in the United States and was immediately put under house arrest, but his presence invigorated the pro-democracy movement.
Waves of protests in June 1987 forced the then-military government to accept democratic reforms and Kim and many other political leaders were reinstated.
He ran unsuccessfully for the presidency in 1987 and 1992 before finally winning the 1997 poll.
