President Roh Makes Address at National Assembly

“The most important element of crisis management at the moment is to quiet ‘the exaggerated view of the crisis’ aggravated by the media, businesses and politicians,” said President Roh Moo-hyun on Monday regarding the recent economic crisis.

President Roh stated, “The slump in domestic consumption is the biggest problem, and in particular, pessimistic sentiment is more serious than ever,” in the morning of this day during the celebration address for the opening of the 17th National Assembly at the National Assembly building, and added, “But the exaggerated view on the crisis may lead to market shrinkage and distortion, and then the real crisis will be brought about.”

President Roh then said, “The economy will grow at the rate of over 6 percent every year, with 5 percent growth this year as a beginning,” and added, “I can understand that the businesses, politicians and the media are talking about the crisis with a sense of unease, but it is not helpful to our economy to stir up crisis for political reasons, or to block necessary reform measures.”

“A lot of reform measures, including political and the press reform, are tasks in which the parliament should take the lead,” said Roh, adding, “Regarding corruption, I will root it out, not just trim its branches, but I won’t use the method of temporary audits and inspections.”

Roh also stated, “Korean civil service is distinguished, but it is difficult to say it is a ‘first-rate government’ yet,” adding, “I will make a ‘government of a good work’, and a ‘first-rate world government’ by all means, innovating the government until the officials can regard themselves as top class.”

In the meantime, the newly appointed speaker of the 17th National Assembly, Kim One-ki, suggested an inter-Korean parliament meeting, stating, “The environment for the inter-Korean parliamentary meeting should be fairly created,” in the opening address.

Jung-Hun Kim jnghn@donga.com