ID :
75289
Fri, 08/14/2009 - 15:42
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/75289
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President Lee to promise `massive` assistance to N. Korea
By Byun Duk-kun
SEOUL, Aug. 14 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Myung-bak is expected to promise massive
economic and humanitarian assistance for North Korea if the communist nation
abandons its nuclear ambitions, the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said
Friday.
The pledge will come in his speech Saturday, marking the country's liberation
from the 1910-1945 Japanese colonial rule.
"President Lee will again confirm plans to actively assist North Korea in the
economic, education, financial and infrastructure sectors once North Korea gives
up its nuclear programs," Cheong Wa Dae said in a press release.
The renewed pledge will come shortly after North Korea on Thursday released a
South Korean employee of Hyundai Asan, the developer of a joint industrial park
in the North's border town of Kaesong, nearly 140 days after the South Korean was
detained in Kaesong.
Seoul has suspended most of its economic assistance, including its humanitarian
support, for the communist North as inter-Korean relations plunged to their
lowest ebb after the Lee administration was inaugurated early last year.
The South Korean president has repeatedly promised massive support for Pyongyang
under his so-called Denuclearization, Openness 3000 initiative that says Seoul
will help the impoverished North become a country whose per capita income exceeds
US$3,000 within a decade if the North completely denuclearizes.
Pyongyang has rejected the offer, along with any official dialogue with Seoul,
calling it an insult and a "criminal" campaign against its regime.
Lee's speech will also include a call for national unity as he has long said a
dichotomic approach toward North Korea -- as well as toward other domestic and
international issues -- frequently causes unnecessary divisions and
confrontations, according to Cheong Wa Dae.
"He will explain we must take a central, practical approach because that is the
way to create a driving force for unity that will overcome any division or
confrontation," it said.
bdk@yna.co.kr
(END)
SEOUL, Aug. 14 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Myung-bak is expected to promise massive
economic and humanitarian assistance for North Korea if the communist nation
abandons its nuclear ambitions, the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said
Friday.
The pledge will come in his speech Saturday, marking the country's liberation
from the 1910-1945 Japanese colonial rule.
"President Lee will again confirm plans to actively assist North Korea in the
economic, education, financial and infrastructure sectors once North Korea gives
up its nuclear programs," Cheong Wa Dae said in a press release.
The renewed pledge will come shortly after North Korea on Thursday released a
South Korean employee of Hyundai Asan, the developer of a joint industrial park
in the North's border town of Kaesong, nearly 140 days after the South Korean was
detained in Kaesong.
Seoul has suspended most of its economic assistance, including its humanitarian
support, for the communist North as inter-Korean relations plunged to their
lowest ebb after the Lee administration was inaugurated early last year.
The South Korean president has repeatedly promised massive support for Pyongyang
under his so-called Denuclearization, Openness 3000 initiative that says Seoul
will help the impoverished North become a country whose per capita income exceeds
US$3,000 within a decade if the North completely denuclearizes.
Pyongyang has rejected the offer, along with any official dialogue with Seoul,
calling it an insult and a "criminal" campaign against its regime.
Lee's speech will also include a call for national unity as he has long said a
dichotomic approach toward North Korea -- as well as toward other domestic and
international issues -- frequently causes unnecessary divisions and
confrontations, according to Cheong Wa Dae.
"He will explain we must take a central, practical approach because that is the
way to create a driving force for unity that will overcome any division or
confrontation," it said.
bdk@yna.co.kr
(END)
