The leader of the main opposition party said Monday that his party will do all it can to overcome social ills, make a fair society and improve welfare of the people this year.
"This year is a year when we should prepare for a new society to be established through next year's power transfer," Sohn Hak-gyu, chairman of the Democratic Party (DP), said in a New Year's press conference. "Let's make a new society where people thrive all together, overcoming Korean disease."
In the conference also timed to mark his 100 days in office, Sohn defined the widening income gap between the rich and the poor, foul play and preferential treatments for those in power as the "Korean disease."
To make a new society, Sohn said the country must set up a fair social system and pursue people-centered welfare policies.
Sohn also vowed to "open a way of inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation based on the spirit of the two summit agreements signed under the past liberal governments."
"It is very important for the economies of South and North Korea that the countries cooperate and co-prosper in peace," he said.
The DP will play a leading role in establishing a new country and open a new era and seek to closely cooperate with other liberal parties, he said.