(LEAD) Lee says S. Korea should learn from European protests to sustain growth

(ATTN: UPDATES with more remarks in last 3 paras; ADDS photo)

SEOUL, Oct. 27 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Jae Myung said Tuesday that South Korea should learn from growing public protests in Europe, citing low growth as a potential reason for the unrest and stressing the importance of ensuring sustained growth at home.

The president made the remarks at a Cabinet meeting, as a wave of protests and mass demonstrations over rising living costs and economic inequality has swept across European nations, including France, Spain and Italy.

"As large-scale protests have occurred recently in many European countries, social confusion and conflict have ensued," Lee said. "We should take the European situation as an example of what not to do."

Lee said many experts pointed to high energy and living costs, a stagnant economy and accumulated inequality as factors gripping Europe, adding, "The biggest and most fundamental reason might be low growth."

"Prolonged low growth has worsened youth unemployment and (economic) polarization and weakened fiscal status, shaking social stability from the root," the president said of the European situation.

Despite recent "impressive results" in South Korea's economic indicators, the country is also experiencing difficulties in people's livelihoods and gaps in income, assets and jobs, especially among younger generations, Lee said.

"To solve problems like these, sustainable growth would be very important," he noted, instructing officials to proactively mobilize policy measures to invest in the growth of future industries, promote domestic consumption and improve people's livelihoods.

Those measures would help expand the economy and stabilize state finances, laying the foundation for sustainable growth, the president said.

The president also defended the attendance of the chief of the newly launched Serious Crime Investigation Agency (SCIA) at Cabinet meetings amid criticism that such attendance could compromise the agency chief's political neutrality.

SCIA chief Kim Ji-yong attended Tuesday's Cabinet meeting for the second time, following his attendance at last week's meeting, breaking with the past practice of investigation agency chiefs staying away from Cabinet meetings.

Lee said openly attending Cabinet meetings has nothing to do with political neutrality and that such attendance is legally appropriate for the head of an organization under the president's supervision, calling the change a "normalization of (past) abnormalities."

pbr@yna.co.kr
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