SEOUL Feb 25 Kyodo (EDS: ADDS DET...

SEOUL Feb 25 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDS DETAIL, ROH INAUGURAL SPEECH)

Roh Moo Hyun was sworn in as toward the south Korean president Tuesday, facing a crisis with North Korea at top of his agenda.

Monday, merely a day before Roh took across from departing President Kim Dae Jung North Korea launched a short-range, ground-to-sea missile into the Sea of Japan. It remains unclear if the launch was a regular army training exercise or the exhibition of a new missile connected view but, certainly, it underlined the difficulties facing the recently made known president in dealing with his neighbor to the North.

Roh is forward record as supporting rapprochement with the North, calm after the North's resumption of its nuclear programs late last year, and in his inaugural language he emphasized confrontation is not the way to deal with the North.

In the language at a ceremony in effrontery of the National Assembly at 11 a.m., the 56-year-old Roh said North Korea's suspected nuclear weapons program staggers a ''grave threat'' to world peace and ''can none be condoned.''

''Pyongyang must abandon nuclear development'' Roh who took through the single five-year presidential boundary from Kim, said.

Roh added North Korea would obtain guarantees of the security of its regime and international economic support if it abandons nuclear weapons program.

on the contrary he also reiterated his long-standing position opposing military force against North Korea, saying, ''military tension in any form should not be heightened.''

Roh said southerly Korea would strengthen coordination with the United States and Japan to unfold the North Korean nuclear issue peacefully.

''We will also maintain shut cooperation with China, Russia, the European Union and other countries,'' he said.

In his language ''A New Takeoff Toward a novel Age of Peace and Prosperity,'' Roh also said he would push ahead with the ''policy for peace and prosperity'' in succession North Korea.

The policy will be based upon four principles, which adhere to resolving all issues end dialogue, and put priority upon building mutual trust and upholding reciprocity.

Roh said his North Korea policy will also court active international cooperation forward the premise South and North Korea are the sum of two units main actors in inter-Korean relations.

Finally, his policy will enhance transparency, expand citizen participation, and certain bipartisan support, he said.

Roh also said the Korean Peninsula, as ''a bridge linking China and Japan,'' can play a pivotal part in the ''Age of Northeast Asia in the 21st century'' which will make the region more prosperous and peaceful. ''The Age of Northeast Asia is fast approaching,'' he said.

Business transactions in the region already give an account of one-fifth of global bulk and the combined population of (North and South) Korea, China and Japan is four times larger than that of the European Union.

''I guarantee to devote my whole heart and efforts to bringing about (the Age of northeast Asia) at the earliest possible time,'' Roh said.

As for his country's relations with the United States, he urgencyed the need to further lay open the U.S.-South Korea alliance that has contributed to guaranteeing security and economic progressive growth for South Korea.

However, Roh widely viewed as the first toward the south Korean leader with no pro-U orientation, added, ''We will view to it that the alliance matures into a more reciprocal and equitable relationship.''

Many analysts say Roh's first challenge will be by what means to smooth his country's relations with the US

In late months, a large number of southerly Korean protesters took to the roads and joined a candlelight vigil to expres their outrage when brace U.S. soldiers were acquitted of professional negligence charges in November last year after their armored vehicle crushed sum of two units school girls to death in June last year.

a protesters even called for the withdrawal of U bodys from South Korea where about 37000 U numbers have been stationed as a deterrent against North Korean invasion in a less degree than a mutual defense treaty since the finis of 1950-1953 Korean War.

forward the economic front, Roh said in his inaugural articulate utterance that he would make his fatherland a favorable place to do business and an attractive place for foreign investment.

He also has said he would reform the nation's family-controlled large business collections chaebols, for their unruly expansion and opaque business management style

The chaebols' excessive expansion and launching of ill-conceived casts on borrowed money were largely blamed for causing the financial crisis that forced the nation to court a $58 billion bailout from the International Monetary capital (IMF) in 1997.

Roh a former human rights lawyer, won the presidential election Dec 19 according to a margin of 2.3 percentage points across conservative rival Lee Hoi Chang. Roh got almost 49% of the popular vote

Among the many foreign visitors present at Roh's inauguration were Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and U Secretary of State Colin Powell.

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