Lee calls for spirit of taking on challenges to open 'Korea Route'

President Lee Myung-bak said Monday Koreans should muster up creative ideas, and take on challenges needed to open up uncharted paths in order to make the country more prosperous, stressing his trip to Greenland and other countries was part of such efforts.

Lee made the remark during a biweekly radio address, outlining major outcomes of his eight-day trip last week to Russia's Vladivostok for a summit of Pacific Rim leaders, and then to Greenland, Norway and Kazakhstan for talks on resources development and other economic cooperation.

Lee also said the recent upgrading of South Korea's sovereign credit ratings by the three global rating agencies -- Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch -- shows that the country is joining the ranks of advanced nations. Lee also took special note that South Korea was above Japan and China in Fitch's ratings.

"We achieved a grand-slam of three major international credit rating agencies upgrading (Korea's rating) in just 19 days," Lee said during the address, adding that the upgrading would help South Korea save about $400 million in interest costs.

"There are many mountains we have to scale if we are going to become an advanced nation true to the name, but we have to carve out an uncharted path of 'Korea Route' with creative thinking and the spirit of taking on challenges so as to open up the path for a greater South Korea," he said.

One of the most tangible results of Lee's trip was cooperation agreements he struck in Greenland and Norway for environment-friendly development of the Arctic that is believed to hold massive amounts of oil, gas and other important resources.

"We concluded resources cooperation and geological research agreements with Greenland's autonomous government and laid a path open for the next government to start exploration and development in earnest," Lee said.

Lee also said South Korea struck agreements with Norway that will help the country open up new Arctic sea routes that are expected to drastically cut shipping distances and time between Europe and Asia, compared with the existing roundabout lanes.

Norway also promised to back Korea in its bid to win permanent observer status in the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental forum of Arctic states, he said. (Yonhap)