Former South Korean Prime Minister Kim Jong Pil, who played a pivotal role in paving the way for normalization of relations between Japan and South Korea, died of old age Saturday. He was 92.

He was one of the "three Kims" -- the others being late presidents Kim Dae Jung and Kim Young Sam -- who dominated South Korean politics during the country's turbulent transition from dictatorship to democracy.

(Kim Jong Pil in March 2001)

In a post on Facebook, Prime Minister Lee Nak Yon described Kim as "the very person who embodied the honor and disgrace," adding that he was a person blessed with "a lot of capabilities and attractiveness."

Local media remembered him as a "politician of troubled times."

In 1962, Kim, then head of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, met privately with Japanese Foreign Minister Masayoshi Ohira to settle the issue of reparations for Japan's 1910-1945 occupation of the Korean Peninsula, which had been a sticking point in negotiations to normalize ties.

The meeting in Tokyo produced the so-called "Kim-Ohira Memo," which became the starting point for the subsequent stages of the normalization talks, culminating in the 1965 Treaty on Basic Relations Between Japan and the Republic of Korea.

(Kim Jong Pil, left, and Masayoshi Ohira meet in Tokyo in 1962.)

In Tokyo, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a condolence message to South Korean President Moon Jae In, praising Kim's "direct" role in negotiations to normalize ties between Japan and South Korea, the Japanese government said.

Abe lauded Kim for having "built the foundation of the present Japan-South Korea relations" and thereafter "contributing greatly" to further develop bilateral ties.

Kim was born in 1926 in Buyeo County, South Chungcheong Province, and graduated from the Korea Military Academy in 1949. He was a key figure in the May 16, 1961, coup that put Maj. Gen Park Chung Hee in power.

Following the coup, he established the KCIA, now known as the National Intelligence Service, and served as its first chief from 1961-1963.

He served as prime minister, the country's No. 2 post, twice, from 1971 to 1975 and from 1998 to 2000. In 1976 he became the first chairman of the Korea-Japan Parliamentarians' Union.