Seoul's Financial Markets Plunge in Crisis of Confidence; Kim Assures Nation Economic Reform Is on Track
South Korea's newly elected president, Kim Dae Jung, fought a losing battle today to bolster the confidence of financial markets, which fell sharply amid fears that he will bend to labor unions and other domestic political pressures rather than instituting tough economic reform measures.</br></br>Despite repeated assurances from Kim and his aides, who said the president-elect intends to comply fully with economic reform guidelines set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the South Korean stock market dropped 5.1 percent and the South Korean currency, the won, fell as much as 11 percent before closing down 4.5 percent.</br></br>"It will take all the wisdom {we have} to restore the economic situation," said Kim's chief of staff, Jay Yoo. "It will take some time. We'll work together with foreign investors and the IMF. I don't know how long it will take."</br></br>Traders and business leaders said they were worried because Kim initially balked at the terms of the IMF's $57 billion bailout of South Korea, even though he later muted his criticism and declared his full support for the guidelines.</br></br>On his first day as president-elect, Kim tried hard to dispel doubts about his determination to tackle South Korea's tough economic problems that include a weak banking system, inefficient industrial conglomerates and a foreign debt crisis threatening to strangle the world's 11th-largest economy.