President Lee Myung-bak instructed the Cabinet on Tuesday to study ways to spur domestic demand, saying ordinary people are still experiencing economic difficulties despite brisk exports.
"Our country depends highly on trade. We have been reaping achievements in exports," Lee said in a Cabinet meeting, according to spokeswoman Kim Hee-jung. "However, as the domestic market is
relatively small, the economic sentiment among ordinary people is poor."
Government ministries and agencies should study ways to expand domestic demand in the second half of the year and help small- and medium-sized merchants, Lee said in the meeting.
At the start of the meeting, Lee and other participants put on patriotic lapel pins on the eve of June, the month in which the Korean War started in 1950.
"These days, young people don't know much about the June 25 war," Lee said. "Foreign countries consider our country's expressions of
gratitude for their help (during the war) to be special even 60 years later."
Sixteen countries dispatched troops and five others sent medical units under the U.N. flag to help South Korea repel invading troops from the communist North backed by Chinese troops.
The war ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula still technically at war.