President Kim Expects Talks with Kim Jong-il will be Fruitful

The meeting to take place next spring between him and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in Seoul will serve as a forum to begin working out the details of a peace system for the two Koreas, President Kim Dae-jung said Thursday.

"We will be discussing specifically how to establish peace," President Kim said in an interview with JoongAng Ilbo. The interview was held to mark the 35th anniversary of the vernacular daily.

Unlike the rigid June 15 Pyongyang meeting where the two leaders focused more on the historic meeting itself than the content, the president said that he hoped that next spring's summit will really tackle the specifics. The president was upbeat as he talked about inter-Korean relations, stressing that he would like to found a peace system before he leaves office in 2003.

The president, however, was grim as he commented on the range of domestic issues burdening his administration, asking the media not to play up the current economic difficulty.

"The aborted sale of Daewoo Motors is a problem larger than the Kia incident, but we are in the process of resolving the matter," Kim said.

The bankruptcy of Kia Motors Co. in 1997 dealt a severe blow to the Korean economy, just before it had to request for the $58 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund.

On raising public funds to be used in restructuring the financial market, the president said he will make every possible effort to lessen the burden on taxpayers.

Kim, who a day earlier accepted the resignation of Park Jie-won, formerly culture and tourism minister and his close aide, expressed regret but acknowledged that it was necessary to clear up what happened.

He, however, reiterated that he sees no need to appoint a special prosecutor to look into the Hanvit Bank loan scandal involving Park. He stressed that the National Assembly has sufficient powers for the job.

by Kim Jin-kook