VOA标准英语10月-South Korean Markets, Currency Plunge on Eve of A

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An employee of the Korea Stock Exchange reacts in front of an electronic stock board in Seoul, 23 Oct 2008

The country's main stock index, the KOSPI, hit its lowest point in more than three years Thursday. Trading was halted in the smaller KOSDAQ index after it hit an all-time low.

What most alarms many investors³ here in South Korea, however, is the further erosion in value of the country's currency, the Won, against the U.S. dollar. With trust and confidence between international banks all but nonexistent, global investors are hoarding⁴ dollars and pushing up their value. The Won plunged⁵ Thursday by more than three percent, falling more than 33 percent against the dollar this year.

The crisis is expected to dominate the Asia-Europe Meeting, or ASEM, in Beijing. Prior to his departure for the meeting, President Lee called for a jumpstart in the global economy.

He says countries all across the world should aggressively activate⁶ their economy by boosting government expenditures⁷ and stimulating⁸ domestic demand.

South Korea has been taking its own steps in that direction, by loosening bank lending restrictions⁹ and guaranteeing $150 billion worth of the country's foreign bank debts. It has also been injecting tens of billions of its more than $200 billion stash¹⁰ of foreign reserves into the local economy.

Seoul hopes to coordinate¹¹ tighter economic cooperation with other countries, especially its neighbors, fellow export giants Japan and China.

South Korea is also taking the lead in proposing a new international mechanism¹² for preventing crises like these in the future. Details of the proposal are still being sketched¹³ out, but they involve empowering multinational¹⁴ institutions, or creating a new one, to act in a supervisory role in the global economy. South Korean officials argue organizations like the International Monetary¹⁵ Fund have waned¹⁶ in influence and are unable to perform that role.

The idea has gotten a lukewarm reception internationally, but is getting some traction¹⁷ here in South Korea. Former South Korean Prime Minister and Finance Minister Han Duck-soo told a forum¹⁸ this month, the idea of a new global regulatory body is worth examining.

"While the impact is global, the institutions which are actually making surveillance and monitoring are not global," he said. "That is one of the very important mismatches."

Separately, President Lee will hold summits with a number of world leaders in Beijing, including newly elected Japanese Prime Minister Aso Taro¹⁹. The meeting comes at an important time in multinational efforts to end North Korea's nuclear weapons. Tokyo is refusing to participate in energy assistance to the North called for in a six-nation deal, until Pyongyang provides more cooperation on the issue of Japanese citizens abducted²⁰ by North Korean agents in the 70s and 80s.