Kim Jong-Il`s Seoul visit essential: Kim says at town hall meeting

Reforms of the banking, corporate, public and labor sectors are nearing completion and the second half of the year should see business pick up and more jobs created, President Kim Dae-Jung said in a ``town hall meeting`` Thursday.

During a nationally televised ``Dialogue with the People,`` Kim pledged his best efforts to complete the mission he began with his inauguration in 1998 and to work with the public over the remaining two years of his term.

``Having uncovered accounting fraud and other corrupt practices at such companies as Daewoo Motor, the government must strictly deal with these offenses,`` Kim said. ``The basic law on anti-corruption and a law on money laundering will be passed and revisions will be made to the law on the ethics of public servants.``

In cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the prosecution is seeking the whereabouts of former Daewoo chairman Kim Woo-Choong, he said, adding that disgraced conglomerate chief would not receive any special treatment.

Commenting on the controversy over government-led tax probes of local media companies, Kim said, ``The tax audits of media firms are not meant to tame the press. If that were the case, an open audit of all media would not have been undertaken but only a few would have been targeted for a low-profile examination.`` Referring to his many years as an opposition leader, Kim said, ``As a man who struggled all my life for democracy, I would never attempt to tame the press through such audits, especially with only two years left before I leave office.``

He stressed the need to stabilize prices by limiting hikes in public utility and other fees in the first half of the year, aiming to keep inflation below 3 percent in 2001. Pointing to the results of a recent opinion poll showing that 90 percent of the people were in favor of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il`s upcoming trip to Seoul, the president said his visit was absolutely necessary to reduce the risk of war and establish a permanent peace on the Korean peninsula.

Yun Seung-Mo ysmo@donga.com