hankyoreh

Prime Minister of Australia in Canberra on November 7. (Yonhap)

"I am not a successful president and I am sorry to the people about this. I think it's due to my lack of political capacity.''

These were the words of President Roh Moo-hyun on December 7. The remarks came in a meeting with Korean residents held in Sydney during his state visit to Australia. "Privilege and authoritarianism have been weakened to a level in which they cannot be revived in South Korea, but we still engage in too much fighting amongst each other,'' added President Roh.

"Persons with different views from mine may be correct," he said. "However, owing to lingering memories of fighting against the previous military dictatorship, people tend to divide others into categories of 'good' and 'bad,' and there exists a prejudice that ‘people with accumulated wealth abused their power to get where they are.’ "

The president continued, "There also used to exist a culture of non-tolerance from each side, and the other side considered me ‘a troublemaker who used to stage demonstrations on the streets.’ Due to the lack of my political capability, I couldn't accomplish a politics of dialogue and compromise,'' President Roh continued.

He added, "[During the days of the previous military dictatorships], we waged an ideological struggle for a long time, so there exists a culture [in which the Left and Right] do not acknowledge each other. Now I am paying the price heavily.''

Regarding concerns that after North Korea's nuclear test the military balance between the South and the North might be broken, the president said that "North Korea may possess nuclear weapons, but South Korea can maintain a sufficient edge in terms of military power. North Korea can't defeat South Korea in a war. The North may inflict serious damage on the South, but it can't win,'' President Roh stressed. He said that the United States has promised to guarantee deterrence against the use of nuclear weapons by the North, adding, "We are maintaining relations with the U.S. in that direction.''

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