He made the remarks in response to a question from Uri Party lawmaker Yu Phil-u in the National Assembly.

But Han said Korea was still a long way from a Japanese-style situation since the problems of the two countries were very different. Japan hit a depression because it delayed restructuring of its financial system and liquidation of insolvent businesses, he said.

Han also for the first time admitted that Korea is unlikely achieve its growth target of 5 percent for the year. The government defied experts’ predictions of no more than 4 percent when it set the target late last year. Han said it would make every effort to achieve the target in the second half of the year, among other things by maintaining a low-interest policy for the time being.

(englishnews@chosun.com )