Lee calls for guarded optimism

SEOUL, April 21 (UPI) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak Tuesday said the country was taking "unprecedentedly swift" measures to dig itself out of the economic downturn.

Lee told members of the Cabinet, "The reason the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) predicted the speed of Korea's economic recovery will be the fastest is because we are taking unprecedentedly swift measures," his spokesman Lee Dong-kwan told reporters.

The president called for guarded optimism.

"We must continue to strictly implement our measures to be truly recognized as the first nation to overcome the crisis, while taking a cautious approach to such a positive outlook," he said in a report from the Yonhap news agency.

First-quarter results were "relatively good" but recovery would be judged on "our end-results, not our mid-term report," the president said.