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Kim vows to carry on economic reforms

SEOUL: South Korean President Kim Dae-jung said on Monday he would press on with his corporate and financial restructuring agenda and sought bipartisan cooperation for an historic North-South summit in June.

Speaking to the nation following last week's parliamentary elections, in which the opposition consolidated its position as the single largest party, Kim vowed to wrap up his economic reform programme this year.

"The government would proceed with incessant restructuring, not only in the financial and corporate sector, but in the public sector," Kim said in the televised speech.

The government would go ahead with the privatisation of state-run companies and remained committed to making Korea "the number one country" for foreign investors, Kim said.

He said the government would try to keep consumer prices, interest rates and the local equity market stable.

The opposition Grand National Party (GNP) won 133 seats in the 273-seat National Assembly in Thursday's elections, a gain of 11 seats that left it four shy of a majority in the unicameral legislature.

But Kim's Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) picked up 17 seats to take its total in the new assembly to 115, giving the president some justification to claim an electoral endorsement of a reform programme that has helped pull the economy out of its biggest crisis since the Korean War.

During the campaign the GNP had blasted the government's privatisation programme and for selling off prized corporate assets to foreigners at firesale prices.

The government's biggest sale to a foreign buyer came in December, when U.S. investment fund Newbridge Capital took a 51 percent stake in Korea First Bank, one of several banks nationalised in the wake of the Asian financial crisis in late 1997.

The pending sale of Daewoo Motor to a foreign company is widely seen as a bellwether of Korea's openness to foreign investment.

In his speech, Kim offered to meet GNP leader Lee Hoi-chang in an effort to find a consensus on pending political and national issues.

The president is especially eager to present a united front over his historic June summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

"It's time for all of us to promote national harmony and be prepared to make the historic summit a success," Kim said.

National news agency Yonhap quoted Lee as saying on Monday he would accept the invitation.-Reuters