S. Korea eyes 'vital' ASEAN meet

S. Korea eyes 'vital' ASEAN meet

SEOUL (AFP): South Korean President Kim Dae-jung will head to this month's Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit with a call for south and north Asia to tackle the region's economic crisis.

Kim, the first South Korean head of state to attend an ASEAN summit in the decade since Seoul was granted observer status by the grouping, will hold up South Korea and Thailand as models for battling the Asian malaise.

"It is very, very important for us that President Kim takes a strong message to our Asian neighbors at this time, a message of support, solidarity as well as a message of reform," a presidential aide said.

"He will appeal to the other Asian leaders and stress the need for an economic partnership between Northeast and Southeast Asia so that we can join hands to overcome the crisis," he added.

Kim is expected to arrive in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi just before the Dec. 15 start of the meet of the nine members of ASEAN and its three North Asian observer -- Japan, China and South Korea.

While Kim has held high-profile summits with the leaders of South Korea's key strategic partners -- the United States, Japan and China -- since coming to power at the head of a reformist government in February, he has not yet held specific talks with his other Asian counterparts.

"The president of course met other Asian leaders at APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Malaysia last month), but that meeting was much bigger and was not exclusively an Asian forum," an official said.

"ASEAN will give him an important opportunity to meet in more intimate circumstances with key Asian leaders, including in bilateral meetings which have yet to be arranged," he said.

Kim hopes to strike up strong personal relationships, and also drive home the point that Thailand and South Korea are showing signs of becoming the first countries in the region to emerge from the crisis.