President Lee Myung-bak made an urgent appeal to the crisis-mired eurozone Monday to make “excruciating” efforts and come up with fundamental solutions to its debt problems, saying the crisis is threatening to hurt economies beyond the single-currency bloc.

“The crisis in Europe is affecting the entire world, of course including South Korea,” Lee said during the first session of the Group of 20 summit in Mexico’s resort city of Los Cabos,

“I once again urge directly concerned eurozone nations to put together fundamental measures in an excruciating manner.”

It was because of the thorough, painful restructuring that South Korea went through during the 1997 Asian financial crisis that the country quickly overcame the crisis after accepting a humiliating bailout from the International Monetary Fund. 

South Korea is now able to contribute to the rescue funds of the lending agency, he said.

Lee said he hoped to see the European Union come up with fundamental solutions to the crisis at a summit set for later this month, and that the world should take the crisis as an opportunity to check on and cure the vulnerabilities of the global economy.

Earlier in the day, Lee called on world leaders to address the gap between rich and poor, warning that growing disparities could lead to social unrest.

“With the widening gap between rich and poor, there is also a possibility that it will lead to social unrest. So for the market economy to continue to grow, we must tackle this issue,” Lee told a business forum ahead of the G20 summit.

Citing figures from the International Labor Organization, some 27 million people have lost their jobs since the global crisis hit in 2008, which “undermines economic dynamism” especially as many are young, Lee said.

(From news reports)