 President-elect Lee Myung-bak speaks before foreign correspondents at the Korea Press Center, Seoul, Thursday. / Korea Times Photo by Ko Young-kwon |
Staff Reporter
President-elect Lee Myung-bak stressed Thursday that the next government would make more energetic efforts to build better inter-Korean relations than previous administrations.
Lee denied that the planned government downsizing downplayed relations with the North.
The presidential transition team said the new government will merge the Ministry of Unification with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
This met a backlash from the pro-government United New Democratic Party (UNDP) which calls the Unification Ministry a key vehicle that has played a critical role in helping improve inter-Korean relations.
``In fact, the merging of the two ministries is a reflection that active inter-Korean relations will come with the next administration,'' Lee told foreign correspondents at a press conference in Seoul.
The President-elect explained all government ministries would need to work closely with Pyongyang in all areas once the North dismantles its nuclear programs.
``It is not feasible for one government ministry to deal with the increased roles and functions in inter-Korean relations in the post-denuclearization era,'' Lee said.
Reiterating denuclearization is a prerequisite to ensuring peace on the Korean Peninsula, Lee said he would persuade North Korean leaders that they will be better off once peace is declared as a consequence of their giving up their nuclear programs.
Lee also said he would not request the Japanese government to make a public apology for past affairs.
Textbook and history issues have been played out as one of core setbacks to building strong Korea-Japan relations in the past years.
Lee referred to the Korean government's requests to Japanese leaders to make a sincere apology for what happened in the past between the two nations: the Japanese leaders had made an apology, but it had not sounded very sincere.
``I will not stick to formal things. Instead, I will seek more tangible results, which will better serve the mutual interests of the two nations,'' he said.
In a prepared speech he delivered at the outset of the press conference, the President-elect stressed he would seek proactive diplomacy with Asian countries and plan to level up ties with both China and Japan.
Lee also committed that Korea will play a larger international role in the global community by increasing its Official Development Assistance (ODA) and sending more overseas volunteers under the title of Korean version of the Peace Corps.
Regarding the ODA-gross national income (GNI) ratio of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Korea ranked the lowest among 30 OECD member countries, at 0.05 percent.
The total ODA of Korea in 2006 stood at $447 million won, which was drastically cut from $752.3 million a year ago.
Since the 1990s, Korea has sent a total of 3,776 volunteers to developing and underdeveloped countries under the Korea Overseas Volunteer program, one of the top five nations sending mostly government-sponsored volunteers alongside countries such as the U.S., Japan and Britain.
hkang@koreatimes.co.kr
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