Experts call Park to revise election pledges

Dozens of South Korean professors and experts have urged President Park Geun-hye to revise her election commitments, calling most of her pledges rosy rhetoric and unrealistic, a poll showed Friday. The survey of 60 professors and experts and released by the Korea Economic Research Institute found (KERI) that Park is short on specifics and long on rhetoric concerning the economy and foreign affairs. Park has pledged to build a "creative economy" where science technology and information technology play central roles in the country's growth. She has also vowed to revitalize the slumping economy and create new jobs as Asia's fourth-largest economy has showed signs of slowing down. Still, the professors and experts said Park's project to build a creative economy appears to be "an abstract declaration" that lacks specifics. They were also critical of Park's policy on how to resolve North Korea's nuclear weapons programs that gained further urgency amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula following Pyongyang's third nuclear test last month. Park "needs to spell out action plans," they said in the survey, noting there are no measures to deal with North Korea in case the isolated country's belligerent attitude remains unchanged despite Seoul's efforts. Park has urged North Korea to embrace her outreach to promote peace on the divided peninsula through confidence-building measures, saying Pyongyang should no longer squander its scarce resources for nuclear development. However, North Korea has responded by threatening to turn Seoul and Washington into a "sea of fire" with its nuclear weapons and to scrap the cease-fire agreement that ended the 1950-53 Korean War. The KERI is a private think tank affiliated with the Federation of Korean Industries, South Korea's most powerful business lobby that speaks for about 500 corporate members.