A president in a hurry

摘要

The popularity of Kim Dae Jung, South Korea's president, as measured by opinion polls, is now only 20%, down from a high not long ago of 80%. Yet by some measures he has been a successful president. South Korea has repaid $19.6 billion borrowed from the IMF during the financial crisis in 1997, an accomplishment celebrated at a concert in Seoul on August 26th, which Mr Kim attended. It still has to repay $10.7 billion borrowed from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, but should have no problem doing so. Its foreign-exchange reserves have been built up to a healthy $97.8 billion. Mr Kim is given much credit for this.