LEE'S PRAGMATIC REFORMS SET TO JOLT SOUTH KOREA IN 2008.

SEOUL, Jan 1 Asia Pulse - South Korea is expected to undergo across-the-board changes this year under the incoming Lee Myung-bak administration, ending a decade of liberal rule that critics say was riddled with economic woes, security concerns about North Korea's nuclear ambitions and friction with allies.

The pragmatic Lee administration that takes power on Feb. 25 has promised to streamline government organizations and public corporations, prioritize the free market economy and revitalize business through deregulation, improve people's lives through job creation and educational reform, and increase incentives for foreign investors.

In security and diplomacy, Lee will likely take conservative positions, seeking to improve relations with the U.S. and other traditional allies and reviewing the engagement policy of liberal governments towards North Korea. He has already said he would depart from the past administrations' practice of "refraining from offending" the communist North.

Lee's transition team, launched in late December after his landslide victory in the Dec. 19 election, has selected eight broad policy agendas: improving public livelihood; overhauling public and government organizations; stimulating spending by foreign and domestic investors; reforming education; stabilizing the real estate market; fighting corruption; easing youth unemployment; and improving welfare for the underprivileged.

Lawmakers at Lee's conservative Grand National Party and local political experts say that pragmatism will be the dominating philosophy in the Lee government's management of state affairs and diplomacy, as the former Hyundai CEO and Seoul mayor repeatedly vowed in his campaign to become a "CEO-style" president who would revitalize the nation's economy.

"The barometer in all policy decision-making will be pragmatism," said Rep. Park Hyung-joon, a close aide to Lee. "French President Nicolas Sarkozy has spread a wave of pragmatism throughout France long inured to political discourse. Lee will display a similar leadership," said Park.

Illustrating his pragmatic style, Lee appointed a prominent foreign financier to lead the presidential transition team's special committee on national competitiveness. He also instructed ranking members of the transition team to advance the start of daily morning meetings by one and a half hours to 7:30 a.m. and refrain from luxury office furnishings and expensive meals.