In ‘Town Hall’ Meeting, Kim Calls for Sacrifices

In an unprecedented “town hall”-style meeting Sunday, President-elect Kim Dae Jung appealed to South Koreans to accept layoffs and other sacrifices so the nation can rebuild.

“We’re just entering a dark IMF tunnel,” Kim said in a nationally televised meeting with a sampling of constituents. “The real ordeal will begin from now on.”

The International Monetary Fund granted the country loans in December--with strict conditions--to help it overcome a crisis that has pushed South Korea to the brink of national default.

Calling 1998 a “year of harsh trials,” Kim predicted up to 1 million layoffs and double-digit inflation. Layoffs are a key IMF requirement and are crucial to persuading foreign lenders to roll over South Korea’s short-term debt of $92 billion, due within a year.

Job cuts and other aftereffects of the economic collapse dominated Sunday’s two-hour program, in which Kim fielded questions from seven panelists, 200 studio guests and a few people in the street.

Kim, who was elected Dec. 18, promised during his campaign to hold the meeting, which was patterned after the town hall gatherings staged by U.S. presidents.

Kim’s term begins Feb. 25, but already he has been heavily involved in trying to pull South Korea out of its economic morass.

While promising to strengthen the nation’s skimpy social safety net, he appealed to workers Sunday to accept rising unemployment, in part because it is critical to attracting overseas investors.

“In an era of a global economy, we can’t survive without foreign investment. We must change our attitude toward foreign investment. We should welcome it,” Kim said.