Seoul, South Korea - South Korean Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou Hwan died Monday at the age of 86, media reports said. Kim, who was the country's first Roman Catholic cardinal and played an important role in South Korea's democratization, died at Seoul's Saint Mary's Hospital, where he had been hospitalized for the past year.
He had been treated for pneumonia and complications for several months and had fallen into brief comas multiple times, the national new agency Yonhap reported.
He was ordained in 1951 and elevated to the rank of cardinal in 1969 by then-pope Paul VI. He retired from the office of archbishop of Seoul in 1998.