The South Korean economy faces a host of structural challenges that were left unattended as the nation managed an export-led recovery from the Asian financial crisis a decade ago, the journalists told the Feb. 22 symposium.
New President Lee Myung Bak, a former corporate CEO who became South Korea's first leader from a business background, has promised 7 percent annual growth, and the creation of 3 million jobs as a way to address the country's widening gap between the rich and the poor.
However, the South Korean journalists said they doubt such rapid growth is feasible given the growing fears of a worldwide slowdown, warning that the divide might even get worse under his growth-oriented economic policy.