S. Korea will be first to overcome crisis: president

By Byun Duk-kun
AUCKLAND, New Zealand, March 3 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will be the first nation
in the world to overcome the ongoing global economic crisis despite the waning
demand for Korean products and worst growth forecasts in nearly a decade, South
Korean President Lee Myung-bak said Tuesday.
"The country's economy is contracting under inevitable circumstances... but a
crisis has an end. The crisis will be over in a year or two no matter how
difficult the situation is if the entire world joins its efforts, I am
confident," the president said.
"And I am confident our Republic of Korea will begin to recover before any
others," he said while meeting with South Korean residents here in the most
populous city of New Zealand, referring to South Korea by its official name.
The South Korean president arrived here earlier Tuesday for talks with New
Zealand Prime Minister John Key, in which they agreed to begin talks on a free
trade agreement between the two countries.
Lee said the troubles now facing Korea did not come from its own wrongdoing, but
because of the waning demand for Korean goods amid the liquidity crisis sweeping
the global market.
"Korea is a country whose growth largely depends on exports, but there are
currently no countries in the world that will buy our products because of the
flagging global economy," he said.
The president, however, said the country was expected to record a US$15-billion
trade surplus this year, noting the country marked a $3.3-billion surplus last
month despite a 20-percent drop in overall import-export volume.
bdk@yna.co.kr
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