South Korea's Pres: Why can't our companies develop products like Nintendo?

South Korea's president, Lee Myung-bak, posed a question during his visit to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy this week asking why the nation cannot build a  videogame hardware system to compete with the likes of Nintendo.

"A lot of our elementary school children have Nintendo game machines. Why can't our companies develop products like that?" he asked.

A Korean news paper reported on the backlash the president received from game execs in the country, says GamePolitics, one of which is was Park Sang-hoon who's company makes the Linux-based GP2X handheld:

"It would be great if the software industry here was healthy enough to produce a lot of games, which would drive up the sales of handheld consoles and introduce more products onto the market. However, as a latecomer, we have the difficulty of proving our products first and securing third parties later."

One exec even slammed the prez stating, "You don't have the right to be daydreaming about Nintendo, when Korean online game firms, which are actually doing well overseas, feel they could do better if the government wasn't biting at their ankles."

Ouch.

Full thing through the link.