YONHAP NEWS

(LEAD) Lee says envisioned river project will produce 'new values'

SEOUL, Nov. 22 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Myung-bak said Sunday that an envisaged restoration project of the country's four major rivers will benefit the country by creating "more-than-expected" value for the nation, apparently in an effort to assuage skepticism over the controversial project.

The controversial project calls for the government to spend 22.2 trillion won (US$19 billion) by 2012 to restore the country's major Han, Nakdong, Geum and Yeongsan rivers in order to prevent floods and cope with water shortages.

"As we experienced from the restoration of the Cheonggye stream, the project to restore the four major rivers will produce new values that are larger than what we could expect," Lee said during a ceremony in the southwestern city of Gwangju to mark the start of the restoration of the Yeongsan River.

   While as mayor of Seoul in 2005, Lee restored the 5.8km Cheonggye stream that runs across the nation's capital, transforming it into a major tourist attraction.

   "If the project proves to be a success, the world will remember South Korea as the leader of green growth," the president said, underscoring that the project should not be dealt with as a subject of political strife.

   The four-river restoration project is a replacement for the president's initial plan to build a network of cross-country waterways for a "grand canal," which was scrapped due to immense criticism from environmentalists and opposition parties.

   Critics charge the river restoration project is a run-up to Lee's canal project, one of his main campaign pledges in the 2007 presidential election.

   While supporters say the restoration project will help prevent floods, which cost the nation an average of 2.7 trillion won per year in damages and 4.3 trillion won in repairs, opponents claim it is not economically viable and will wreak havoc on the environment.

   "We should gather our strength for the successful propulsion" of the project, said Lee, further stressing that the restoration project is fundamentally aimed at restoring the ecosystem of the country's rivers.

   Some 2,500 officials, including construction, environmental ministers and local government heads of regions to be affected by the project, attended the event ground-breaking ceremony.

   The main opposition Democratic Party slammed the event, describing it as the signal for a "national disaster."

   "The four-river project will be the main cause of South Korea's fiscal breakdown and the beginning of the collapse of the Lee Myung-bak administration," Woo Sang-ho, the party's spokesman, said in a statement.

   The ruling Grand National Party (GNP) criticized the opposition's ongoing rejection of a related budget review for the project, claiming that a large number of regional governments affiliated with the Democratic Party are in fact in favor of the plan.

   "DP lawmakers from regions that will benefit from the project must clarify their positions on the project," said Cho Yoon-sun, GNP spokeswoman, at a press conference.

   odissy@yna.co.kr
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