President to Take Five-Day Holiday
By Na Jeong-ju
Staff Reporter
President Lee Myung-bak will take a five-day holiday from July 26, Cheong Wa Dae said Wednesday.
``Lee will spend the holiday with his family at a resort for military officers here,'' Cheong Wa Dae Spokesman Lee Dong-kwan said.
Lee presided over a meeting of senior secretaries in the morning and instructed them to ensure smooth operation of state policies during his absence. Originally he planned holidays for a week, but reduced it due to Seoul's tension with Tokyo and Pyongyang.
Lee instructed his Cabinet to map out countermeasures for Japan's claim to the South Korean islets of Dokdo and the killing of a tourist by the North Korean military, Cheong Wa Dae officials said.
Lee also told his secretaries to find ways of improving the government's crisis management system.
Cheong Wa Dae said Tuesday it will reinforce the government's crisis management system in the face of mounting criticism on its belated reaction to the recent killing of a tourist in a North Korean resort.
The presidential office has been under fire over its handling of the shooting of Park Wang-ja, a 53-year-old South Korean housewife, by a North Korean solider in Mount Geumgang in North Korea.
The incident occurred around 4 a.m., but President Lee was not informed until 1 p.m., leading him to make a parliamentary speech that day with a conciliatory approach to Pyongyang.
Lee also reaffirmed that it will not lift its ban on tours to Mt. Geumgang unless North Korea allows a joint investigation into the shooting.