hankyoreh

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said Tuesday that Seoul and Washington have to pursue three objectives -- value, trust and peace-building -- in redesigning their future-oriented strategic alliance.

"On the basis of free democracy and market economy values, South Korea and the U.S. should expand mutually beneficial relations to the military, politics, diplomacy, economy, society and culture to build an alliance of trust," Lee said, speaking to members of the Korea Society at a hotel in New York.

"The two countries should also build a trust-based military alliance to help ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula and promote peace in Northeast Asia," said Lee, who arrived here earlier Tuesday to begin his five-day trip to the U.S.

The Korea Society is a New York-based nonprofit organization that promotes greater awareness, understanding and cooperation between the peoples of the U.S. and South Korea.

As part of efforts to strengthen practical cooperation, Lee said his government will invite about 1,500 American members of the Peace Corps Korea Volunteers, who had in the past engaged in various volunteer activities for the welfare of the Korean people, to experience firsthand South Korea's industrial and cultural developments for five years, starting next year.

Lee noted Kathleen Stephens, who worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in Buyeo in central South Korea in 1975, was recently appointed as new U.S. ambassador to South Korea.

At the Korea Society speech, Lee again stressed the urgency for South Korean and U.S. legislative bodies to ratify a free trade agreement reached by the two sides' government negotiators last June.

Lee also said that a visa waiver program (VWP) agreement for South Korean visitors to the U.S., which will be signed after his summit talks with U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington on Saturday, is expected to help boost bilateral practical cooperation.

South Korea, one of the largest sources of foreign students and travelers in the U.S., has long sought to join the VWP, which will enable South Koreans to enter and stay in the U.S. without visas for up to 90 days.

NEW YORK, April 15 (Yonhap)