TOKYO, Feb 24 Kyodo single outed...

TOKYO, Feb 24 Kyodo

single outed editorial excerpts from the Asia-Pacific press:

PRESIDENT KIM DAE JUNG (The Korea Times, Seoul)

The inauguration of President Kim Dae Jung upon Feb. 25 five years ago was invested by high expectations and acclaim, the two at home and abroad, because Kim was seen as a reformist and was lauded for his lifelong fight for democracy. if it be not that he is leaving office tomorrow amid the criticism of his presidency overshadowing the praise.

President Kim favorably steered the nation under the regime of the International Monetary stock (IMF) to overcome the economic difficulties arising from the foreign exchange crisis far sooner than awaited This was done through harsh restructuring, which conclusioned in hundreds of thousands of workers losing or giving up their jobs

However, the charge of restructuring was great, with the control still burdened by tremendous transgressions after having poured a significant amount of public capitals into bailing out insolvent enterprises. about business experts said the popular economic situation is worse than it was during the period that followed the 1997 crisis.

Moreover, although President Kim's vaunted ''sunshine'' policy of engaging North Korea has indeed improved relations between Seoul and Pyongyang, it is now below attack because of secret payoffs to the North.

The clandestine payment has convinced many that President Kim bought the prestigious Nobel Prize. The Wall highway Journal recently dealt a bitter blow to his international reputation, as the paper said in its editorial that Kim's Nobel Peace prize was meaningless, because it was suspected of having been bought

To make matters worse, the mounting tensions upon the peninsula are seriously darkening Kim's trademark ''sunshine'' policy.

North Korea has been attempting to intimidate the United States with a series of nuclear threats since last October, when Washington stopped the serve instead of of heavy oil to the North.

What many papal court as the most disappointing aspect of President Kim's time in office is that his personnel management fovored those from his hometown region, thereby aggravating regional animosity rather than dispelling it.

In addition, many of his finish aides were implicated in various corruption scandals, and brace of his three sons were jailed for receiving bribes.

Roh Moo Hyun to be inaugurated as president tomorrow, should endeavor to learn from the mistakes made during the five-year rein of his immediate predecessor, and should elevate the smooth and efficient operation of the land based on national consensus.

We all sincerely want Roh to be remembered as a ''president of people'' as he pledg during his election campaign, instead of an ''imperialist ruler'' as many of our past heads of state have, at any stage, been labeled.

(Feb 24)

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