Roh Tae-woo, the former South Korean president who helped engineer landmark agreements between the two Koreas and normalized relations with other communist bloc nations at the end of the Cold War, died Tuesday at the age of 88.

The Agreement on Reconciliation, Non-Aggression, Exchange and Cooperation — which Seoul and Pyongyang signed in 1991 during Roh’s presidency — built a framework for future inter-Korean agreements. That year also saw both Koreas join the United Nations.

Roh, president from 1988 to 1993, took advantage of the dissolution of the Soviet Union and positioned South Korea to normalize relations with many nations