By Ryu Jin
Korea Times Correspondent
PARIS - President Roh Moo-hyun said on Monday South Korea will play a leading role in integrating the Northeast Asian region as France has done in developing the European Union.

While meeting with some 250 university professors and students in the Sorbonne in Paris, Roh set out the ambitious vision, which has already been introduced a couple of times during his Asian and European tours.

``France, a nation that suffered the pain of war, has overcome the past by embracing Germany, thereby having justification and self-esteem to lead the EU,’’ Roh said. ``Moreover, instead of trying to reign over other countries, this powerful nation pushed for integration without causing a feeling of uneasiness among its neighbors.’’

He explained his government’s thorough efforts to bring a peaceful end to the North Korean nuclear crisis is not unrelated to the concept, as the Northeast Asian region will enter a new era when the Korean peninsula is pacified.

In a summit at the Elysee Palace earlier in the day, Roh and French President Jacques Chirac, agreed to peacefully resolve the nuclear standoff through the six-party talks, according to Roh’s aides.

``They also agreed to increase bilateral cooperation on private sector and high-tech industries such as biotechnology, space technology and information technology,’’ said Chung Woo-sung, presidential advisor for foreign affairs.

French President Chirac also showed special interest in South Korea’s multibillion-dollar helicopter development plan, better known as the Korea Multipurpose Helicopter (KMH) project. The single largest defense procurement deal, the KMH project is aimed at developing about 470 state-of-the-art attack and transport helicopters for the nation’s armed forces in the coming 30 years for domestic use and overseas sale.

The Defense Ministry in July chose three firms _ Eurocopter, Agusta-Westland and Bell _ out of the initial five bidders for further negotiations, and plans to announce the successful bidder in September. The Eurocopter is a joint firm of France and Germany. But the process has been stalled at the moment as the nation’s Board of Audit and Inspection took issue with the feasibility of the huge project.

Chung said the two leaders also agreed to resume discussion at government and civil levels on the issue of returning Oegyujang-gak books plundered by France in the 19th century.

France took or burned hundreds of rare old books of the Oegyujang-gak library when its troops raided Kanghwa Island off the West Coast in 1866. France has kept some 279 volumes of books in its national library refusing to return them to Korea.

Roh is scheduled to depart for Seoul on Tuesday (local time) after meeting with speakers of the two chambers of the French parliament and leaders from the business community, after finishing his 11-day trip to Laos and three European countries _ Britain, Poland and France.

jinryu@koreatimes.co.kr