Roh Stresses Efforts to Prevent War
2003-02-14
President-elect Roh Moo-hyun said Thursday (Feb. 13) the government should make efforts to prevent the North Korean nuclear standoff from degenerating into a war on the Korean peninsula.
"There could be different views between the United States and us in how we should be different, and we should prevent war by coordinating such differences," Roh said during a meeting with leaders of the Federation of Korean Trade Unions. The president-elect also visited the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions later in the day.
An advocate of outgoing President Kim Dae-jung's "sunshine" policy of engaging the North, Roh blamed local news outlets for exaggerating foreign news articles that pointed out differences between Seoul and Washington over their approach to the North Korean nuclear threat.
The incoming president, who has called for an equal partnership between the two traditional allies, claimed the government has said what it has to do about the nuclear crisis, given the possibility of the U.S. attacking the communist country.
Touching on Moody's Investors Service's recent downgrade of the country's rating outlook, Roh called on the public to strengthen its resolve to weather the crisis, saying it is better to face financial hardships than to die in a war on the peninsula.
Roh emphasized the need for Seoul to give more aid to the poverty-stricken North, saying the South should make investments in the North even if the North does not give anything in return.
Source : www.korea.net
