SKorean leader: Unification with NKorea draws near

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea's president said unification with North Korea has become more likely as people in the North become more aware of the South's affluence. President Lee Myung-bak said Thursday that residents of the sheltered communist nation know the world is changing. He did not elaborate on how their knowledge has expanded, or how soon unification would come. Lee said during a trip to Malaysia that North Korea's new understanding of circumstances in the outside world as "an important change that no one can stop." His comments were posted on the presidential web site. Lee said South Korea has a responsibility to ensure that the North's 23 million people enjoy basic rights, and that Seoul should use its economic power to prepare for unification. — AP