Lee departs G-20 with support for N. Korea policy, economy

LONDON, April 3 (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak headed back home Friday after a four-day visit here to rally support for "stern action" against North Korea's planned rocket launch and a united front against the global economic downturn.

Lee's departure came after last-minute talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao
that followed a series of bilateral meetings here this week with other heads of
state, including U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon
Brown.
The president's greatest accomplishment came in a joint statement adopted at the
end of the G-20 economic summit here Thursday, in which leaders of 20 major
economies agreed to a set of what he called "unprecedented measures" to fight
trade and financial protectionism.
"Falling demand is exacerbated by growing protectionist pressures and a
withdrawal of trade credit. Reinvigorating world trade and investment is
essential for restoring global growth. We will not repeat the historic mistakes
of protectionism of previous eras," the joint statement said.
A former CEO of a major construction company in Korea, Lee has been a strong
advocate of open markets as nearly 70 percent of his country's economy depends on
trade. The South Korean economy shrank 5.1 percent in the last quarter of 2008,
the largest market contraction since the first quarter of 1998.
Another major agenda item for the South Korean president going into this week's
G-20 meeting in London was to secure support for a joint call on North Korea to
scrap its planned rocket launch.
Lee's efforts were highlighted Thursday when he and the U.S. president, in a
bilateral summit, agreed to seek U.N.-imposed sanctions against the North if
Pyongyang goes ahead with the launch.
The U.S. president also revealed in that meeting that Washington is now preparing
a draft U.N. Security Council resolution, which is widely expected to condemn the
launch and also impose various economic and political sanctions.
The prime minister of Japan, Taro Aso and Brown were among other heads of state
to join the South Korean president in urging North Korea to scrub its rocket
launch.
"Noting the launch of a long-range rocket by North Korea will be a violation of
U.N. Security Council Resolution 1718, the two heads of state agreed to work
together to promote a joint countermeasure by the international community,"
Seoul's presidential office said of bilateral talks held Wednesday between Lee
and Aso.
North Korea is currently prohibited from any missile-related activities under a
Security Council resolution adopted in 2006 shortly after its first-ever nuclear
test. Pyongyang has said it will launch a communications satellite between
Saturday and Wednesday, but Seoul and Washington believe it is a cover for a
ballistic missile test.
Media reports this week said the North began loading fuel into its rocket, a sign
of an imminent launch, according to experts.
Lee's bilateral summit with his U.S. counterpart, the first of its kind since
Obama took office in January, also put Korea at the center stage of this week's
gathering of world leaders.
"We, the leaders of Korea and the United States, reconfirmed that our
time-honored relationship is not a formal, but a substantial one, and agreed to
closely cooperate on all issues of mutual concern including the North Korean
issue," Lee said in a press conference Thursday.
Obama said at the start of his summit with Lee that Korea was "one of America's
closest allies and greatest friends."
bdk@yna.co.kr
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