S. Korea faces tougher times than a decade ago: minister

SEOUL, Oct. 22 (Yonhap) -- South Korea currently faces more difficult times than
it suffered a decade ago, considering worsening external economic conditions,
Finance Minister Kang Man-soo said Wednesday.
"During the (1997) financial crisis, we needed to get over just one thing and
that was a liquidity crunch. Still global markets remained robust," Kang told
parliament. "Now, such external conditions and others are getting worse. Given
that, we might face more difficult times than a decade ago."
On Sunday, South Korea unveiled a US$130 billion package to provide state
guarantees for banks' foreign debt and help ease dollar funding shortage in the
financial sector. The move comes as nations across the globe are grappling to
tackle the financial turmoil.
"We have decided (on the bailout package) after analyzing overall international
efforts. Our bailout plan is different from that of the U.S. in that we could
avoid injecting money if things are well managed," Kang said.
He said that banks should step up efforts to reform themselves and the government
is currently exploring detailed plans to encourage such a self-reform drive. He
didn't elaborate further.
Earlier, heads of 18 banks in South Korea issued a statement, pledging that they
will make voluntary efforts to share some of the financial "pain" in return for
the country's foreign debt guarantee.