Roh Moo-hyun Quotes

We have overcome numerous challenges with inner strength. We have the wisdom to turn even crisis into opportunity. With such wisdom and strength, let us again overcome the challenge facing us today. Let us make future generations remember us as proud ancestors just as, today, we remember our forefathers.

Irregularities and corruption must be eliminated not only for the sustained growth of the economy but also for the health of society. For this purpose, I will search for a structural and institutional alternative. In particular, I ask all leaders in society to seriously reflect on themselves.

I hope to see the kind of political culture that solves problems through dialogue and compromise, not through confrontation and conflict.

The first order of business is to reform politics. We have to realise politics that respect our citizens as a genuine source of power. We should nurture a political climate in which the well-being of the people takes precedence over partisan interests.

I want to make the country a favourable place to do business and an attractive place in which to invest by reforming the markets and systems in a fair and transparent manner based on international standards.

We must build strength and maintain vision. That requires inexorable efforts for reform and integration. Reform is a driving force behind growth, and integration is a stepping-stone for a take-off.

The Korean Peninsula is located at the heart of the region. It is a big bridge linking China and Japan, the continent and the ocean. Such a geopolitical characteristic often caused pain for us in the past. Today, however, this same feature is offering us an opportunity. Indeed, it demands that we play a pivotal role in the age of Northeast Asia in the 21st Century.

In recent years, we have successfully entered the age of information and knowledge, evolving from an agricultural community through the age of industrialisation. Today, however, we are at a historical turning point. We are at a crossroad of having to decide whether to take off or retreat; to move towards peace or tension.

Fellow citizens. Historically, we Koreans have lived through a series of challenges and have responded to them. Having to live among big powers, the people on the Korean peninsula have had to cope with countless tribulations. For thousands of years, however, we have successfully preserved our self-respect as a nation as well as our unique culture. Within the half century since liberation from colonial rule, and despite territorial division, war, and poverty, we have built a nation that is the 12th-largest economic power in the world.

As a result of the great choice of the people, I have been given the honoured responsibility of presiding over the new administration of the republic. I am very grateful to each and every one of you; with your support, I promise to follow this great call to duty.

Japan's present claim to Dokdo is an act negating the complete liberation and independence of Korea. This is a matter where no compromise or surrender is possible, whatever the costs and sacrifices may be.

It is unpredictable what course of action North Korea will take in the coming days, but no government has a policy that can never be changed. They can never be unchanged. And depending on the circumstances or conditions, any government's policy can change I think.

In Korea, to step down from the presidency is to step down from politics. But I thought about what it means to step down. I hope that means a free man. From even before I entered politics, all I wanted was to be a free man. Another thing is that I will now be able to watch the news on TV with peace of mind.

Korea-U.S. relations were important in the past and will be important in the future. We have had dark moments in our relationship and times when we needed very close cooperation. During the beginning of my term, it was a tense time when both governments needed to work very closely together to resolve these very difficult and sensitive problems between the two countries. That is why cooperation between South Korea and the U.S. was even more important.

I have believed for a long time that North Korea was willing to give up nuclear weapons, and there is no change in my belief. That is, I believe that North Korea thinks it is more beneficial not to have nuclear weapons than to have them, and that if the circumstances were right, they would have no reason to possess nuclear weapons. I have no doubt about such assertions from North Korea. I think there are sufficient grounds to think so.