By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
President Lee Myung-bak urged Pyongyang, Friday, to be proactive in key humanitarian issues such as prisoners of war (POWs) being held in North Korea, families living separately in the South and North following the Korean War and people it had kidnapped.
In a speech to mark the 53rd Memorial Day ceremony in Seoul, Lee pledged that he would work closely with North Korea's leader to move these issues forward.
``It is very positive to see that North Korea is willing to cooperate with the international community to achieve denuclearization. But more cooperation and dialogue is needed to move the ongoing inter-Korean relations forward,'' said the President.
Lee also vowed to craft support programs for the war veterans, patriots and their families and to recover the bodies of approximately 130,000 war victims.
The President said the tough political and economic environment requires him to work closely together with his people so as to help turn challenges into opportunities as the nation did in the 1970s when oil shocks hit the economy, and in the 1990s financial crisis.
``Oil prices have doubled over the year, and so have crop prices. I see that the only way we can survive the tough environment is to make the economic infrastructure more competitive than ever before,'' Lee said.
In the speech, Lee briefly mentioned the tough political landscape facing him, saying that he would be ``more humble and carefully listen to what the public says.''
His remarks were made following the intense anti-U.S. beef import rallies. Protestors started holding a candlelit demonstration for three consecutive days from Thursday.
The protests have not shown any sign of subsiding, although the government and the ruling party announced that they would do their best to ban the imports of cuts from cows older than 30 months. Agriculture Minister Chung Woon-chun asked the U.S. government not to export the ``old'' beef as Korean consumers are concerned over their safety.
The governing Grand National Party (GNP) plans to send a five-member team composed of legislators and think tank experts to the United States to discuss the issue with Congress leaders as well as ranchers. The team will leave Seoul Monday for five-day trip to Washington D.C.