Korea Proposes an Asian Fund

The Korean prime minister, Kim Jong Pil, suggested on November 29 establishing an Asian Monetary Fund(AMF) for overcoming the long-term Asian economic crisis.
Kim was attending the 1998 Korea-Japan Ministers Meeting at Kagoshima, Japan, when he proposed this plan to the Japanese prime minister, Obuchi Keizo, by saying 'It's about time we cope with Asian bloc fluctuations together. If Japan starts with 30-50 billion dollars, we'll follow suit. If an AMF had been organized earlier, it could have prevented or at least mitigated the Asian economic crisis.'
The Japanese Economic Daily reported that Kim suggested 300 billion dollars as a goal for AMF fund-raising but Japan feels that is far too high of a total.
The AMF idea was first put forward at the International Monetary Fund(IMF) conference in Hong Kong held in September 1997, with only the U.S. and the IMF objecting.
Both prime ministers after the meeting attended a raising of a new memorial stone tower in honor of Korean-Japanese potter Shim Su Kwan's at his former work place.