Taipei, Jan. 25 (CNA) There will always be hope for Taiwan as long as its people keep their courage, as all Communist regimes will fall eventually, former South Korean President Kim Young-sam said Friday in an interview.
"Keeping their courage is important for the people of Taiwan. With courage comes hope. With determination comes success. Taiwan will be able to be a proud example in Asia in the future, " said Kim, who was invited to attend the Global Forum on New Democracies.
Kim, 80, served as South Korean president from 1993-1998. He was his country's first civilian president since 1960.
Commenting on Taiwan's Jan. 12 legislative election, in which the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) nearly gained a three-fourths majority in the lawmaking body, Kim said the lopsided result was the people's choice but the impact and implication of the election were worthy of contemplation.
He declined to elaborate on Taiwan's upcoming presidential election in March and his personal views of the two candidates -- the KMT's Ma Ying-jeou and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) Frank Hsieh.
Kim also dismissed the comparisons that are sometimes made of relations between South and North Korea and those between Taiwan and China, saying they were neither appropriate nor necessary.
He suggested, however, that all Communist regimes would fall some day, based on the experience of the post-Cold War era when the number of communist regimes had fallen from nearly half of the countries around the world to four -- China, Vietnam, North Korea and Cuba.
The Soviet Union collapsed 10 years after hosting the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics and the impact of South Korea hosting the 1988 Seoul Olympics on its economy has also been debated for a long time, he said.
"Now China is making its best effort for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In terms of the impact of hosting the Olympics on the national economy, it's not necessarily a good thing (for China). The long term impact remains to be seen, " Kim said.
Meanwhile, the former South Korean president also said he would relay a message from President Chen Shui-bian to South President-elect Lee Myung-bak proposing to send a delegation from Taiwan to attend Lee's inauguration ceremony in February.
Kim and five other heads of state, including Chen, and former Poland President Lech Walesa, former South Africa resident F.W. de Klerk, former El Savador President Francisco Flores Perez, and former Romania President Emil Constantinescu, attended the forum.