President Lee Myung-bak vowed Monday to boost South Korea's economy and urged North Korea to give up nuclear weapons as he launched his country's first conservative administration in a decade. According to AP, Lee, was sworn into office at the National Assembly. «Economic revival is our most urgent task,» Lee said in his inaugural speech, promising to boost growth, create new jobs and encourage less conflict between labor and management. «We must move from the age of ideology into the age of pragmatism,» he said, in a veiled criticism of the past 10 years during which he said «we found ourselves faltering and confused.» Lee said he would launch massive investment and aid projects in the North to increase its per capita income to US$3,000 within a decade «once North Korea abandons its nuclear program and chooses the path to openness.» Officials and ordinary citizens attended the inauguration, along with foreign dignitaries including U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda. Lee held talks with Fukuda and was to meet Rice later.
