In an exclusive interview with The Nation last night, Lee pointed out that the current crisis had not hit rock bottom. "There are still some difficulties ahead. On the whole, I am confident we will overcome the crisis. Then East Asia will become even more competitive," he said.

Lee gave a face-to-face interview in addition to a written one on wide-ranging issues covering Asean+6, North Korea and his past experience as a young official monitoring South Korea's first development project in the south of Thailand.

He said East Asia would have a greater potential for growth because of sound economic fundamentals, its diverse and competitive industries, its foreign-exchange reserves and values such as resilience.

"If East Asian countries take the occasion to further upgrade the soundness of their financial system, their stature on the global economic scene will be greatly elevated," he said.

Lee said that East Asia had US$3.5 trillion (Bt125 trillion) in foreign reserves, or 54 per cent of the world's total. "Financial institutions in the region are relatively stable, as their losses stemming from financial derivatives have been small."

The Korean president will join the leaders from Asean, Japan and China tomorrow as part of the Asean+3 summit. On Sunday the leaders from Australia, New Zealand and India will attend another meeting under the framework of Asean+6.

He reiterated that Asean was at the centre of the New Asia Initiative pursued by his government. He also expressed the hope to work together with the ever-evolving Asean in a complementary manner.

"I also hope this summit will serve as an opportunity to exchange Korea's experiences with those of Asean and to promote mutually beneficial progress," he said.

Lee spent part of his youth, from 1965-7, in southern Thailand, supervising the construction of the Pattani-Narathiwat Highway. It was South Korea's first major overseas construction project. He said he had fond memories of Thailand, especially the deep South, which was full of nice people and dense forest.

"As a young man, I had many experiences. I cannot tell you everything: some of them are secret," he said with a smile.

On North Korea's defiance of the UN Security Council with its recent long-range missile test, he said that the council needed to make a more concerted response and that the North Korean nuclear issue should continue to be addressed within the framework of the Six-Party Talks.