President calls for hope despite century`s worst economic crisis

SEOUL, Feb. 1 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Myung-bak said the country is now facing
the century's worst economic crisis, but that hope and positive thinking will
help the country recover, a spokesman for the presidential office said Sunday.
"We must renew our mind and attitude, especially when things become
unpredictable. If we talk of hope and work to realize it, the hope will soon
become true," the president was quoted as saying in a workshop with key
government officials over the weekend.
Lee last week said the country will become one of the first nations in the world
to overcome the ongoing global financial crisis.
However, he noted the times ahead will be rough for the country, saying this kind
of turbulence does not occur more than once every 100 years.
"President Lee asked ministers and vice ministers to share a sense of oneness and
encourage one another while spreading what he called a 'virus of positivity,'"
Lee Dong-kwan, the presidential spokesman, said in a released statement.
The workshop was attended by some 100 key officials, including special advisors
and secretaries to the president, who begins the second year of his five-year
term on Feb. 25.
A spokeswoman for the president earlier said the workshop was aimed at sharing
the direction of the president's governing ideas with his key officials and
advisors.
During the two-day workshop that began Saturday, the president said the keywords
for the second year of his administration are "harmony" and "communication," his
spokesman said Sunday.
The president enjoyed one of the highest approval ratings in recent history at
the beginning of his term, but his popularity rate has plummeted to some 20
percent while his critics accuse him of being a stubborn and uncompromising
president.
The president has also come under immense public pressure to withdraw his
nomination of the former head of the Seoul police agency as the new chief of the
national police force. The nominee has been blamed at least partly for the deaths
of five squatters in a recent clash with police.
Lee has refused to do so, saying in a nationally televised program Friday that it
is not the time. He earlier said he will not sack the police chief nominee unless
he is found legally responsible for the deaths.
bdk@yna.co.kr
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