Lee Myung-bak commends Burma's efforts to promote democracy | WPN World People News

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak met Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi Tuesday as part of his two-day visit to the country.

The visit is the first by a South Korean leader to Burma, also called Myanmar, since the 1983 bomb attack by North Korea which targeted the then South Korean president and killed 21 people.

Suu Kyi said she saw Lee's visit as a demonstration of international goodwill.

"We have to make sure that we do not dissipate this goodwill and that we put it to the best use possible...which is for the sake of our people," she said.

Lee "commended efforts by the government to bring about democracy."

On Monday Lee had met with President Thein Sein in Naypyidaw.

According to officials, Lee's visit to Burma was to discuss economic co-operation.

Security was tight for the visit. Lee also paid his respects to victims of the attack at the Martyr's Mausoleum after his talks with Suu Kyi.

The 1983 bomb attack took place during a visit by former South Korean president Chun Doo-hwan. Chun was to lay a wreath at the mausoleum of Burma's independence hero Aung San, the father of Suu Kyi, but was not present when a bomb went off as his car was held up in traffic. Seventeen South Koreans officials, including three cabinet ministers, were killed.

Three North Korean agents were caught. One blew himself up, a second was hanged while the third died in prison.

Burmese officials also told Lee they would release a North Korean defector, whose name wasn't announced, to South Korea.

The man was arrested after arriving in Burma in 2010 and handed a five-year prison term for entering the country illegally, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Source: The Asia News.Net