SEOUL - SOUTH Korean President Lee Myung Bak, who won a decisive election victory a year ago as the 'economy-first' candidate, struck a sombre note on Friday as he marked the anniversary amid a global downturn.

'Economies across the world are now in dire conditions,' Mr Lee said during visits to the port of Incheon, west of Seoul, and to a car plant.

'Economic times will be very severe over the next one to two years. Let's share and endure the pain together.'

A pledge to raise growth to seven per cent during his single five-year term looks increasingly unattainable, with gross domestic product officially tipped to increase by three per cent next year.

Mr Lee's government was shaken by mass street protests this summer against US beef imports, and relations with communist North Korea are at their frostiest for years.

The president also celebrated his 67th birthday and his 38th wedding anniversary on Friday. Port workers congratulated Mr Lee after breakfasting with him, Yonhap news agency reported.

Mr Lee, the country's first president from a business background, urged Koreans to use the crisis as an opportunity to reform backward labour practices and upgrade national competitiveness.

'Only a country choosing to overhaul its economic structure will survive the crisis,' he said.

Mr Lee, who toured a GM Daewoo plant, also expressed willingness to support struggling local automakers if necessary.

'General Motors of the US is now too ill to be rescued through infusion of taxpayer money,' Yonhap quoted him as saying.

'But the situation of GM Daewoo is different. It is one of the world's best-performing GM car plants... I'm convinced this GM plant in Korea should be kept alive.'

The firm on December 1 began a one-month shutdown of its main plant amid a slump in sales. -- AFP