President Lee Myung-bak sought Tuesday to minimize political impact from his surprise proposal for a "unification tax" aimed at preparing for the huge financial burden expected if the two Koreas are reunified some day.
In his Liberation Day speech on Sunday, Lee proposed that his country introduce the special tax, saying the reunification of South and North Korea will "definitely come." Experts, citing Germany's experience, say the capitalist South, Asia's fourth-largest economy, will have to shoulder astronomical costs if it becomes one nation with the impoverished communist North.
But Lee's proposal sparked heated social and political debates over its timing as military tensions are sharply heightening on the peninsula.
Critics said Lee apparently took into account the possibility of a sudden change in the North's leadership.
"(The government) does not intend to levy the unification tax right now," Lee said, receiving related reports from his presidential aides, according to his spokeswoman Kim Hee-jung.
The conservative president was quoted as saying that South Korea's policy on North Korea has focused on managing the division with the North and "it is the very time to pursue a policy to prepare for reunification."
Lee stressed that his office, Cheong Wa Dae, has just set the stage for discussions among politicians and experts on the issue of the unification tax.