Children of diplomats investigated over employment favors

By Park Si-soo, Kim Young-jin

The government has launched an investigation into seven children of incumbent diplomats at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to see whether they received undue favors in recruitment thanks to their fathers’ positions.

The move came one day after Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan offered to resign to take responsibility for a recruiting scandal in which influence was allegedly peddled to give his daughter preferential treatment in applying for a contract-style position dealing with trade affairs at the ministry.

President Lee Myung-bak has ordered his secretaries to “thoroughly uncover the truth” behind the scandal.

Lee has recently put greater emphasis on the integrity of high-ranking officials after Prime Minister-designate Kim Tae-ho and two other minister-nominees failed to pass National Assembly hearings last month for allegedly receiving bribes and committing illegal acts in the past.

Investigating the latest scandal, a special audit unit at the Ministry of Public Administration and Security said Sunday that it had secured records about how Yu’s daughter and the seven other children of diplomats were employed among 400 contract-style officials at the foreign ministry.

“We will try to find out what happened in the disputed recruiting process,” an auditor said.

Any illegal acts by the minister have not been confirmed yet, but auditors believe Yu apparently meddled in the recruiting process. Their latest finding shows that one of his close aides was handling recruitments.

The nepotism scandal and consequent resignation of the minister comes just two months ahead of the G20 summit in Seoul. Leaders of 20 major economies will get together on Nov. 11 and 12 to discuss ways of boosting consistent economic prosperity.

It also comes amid a flurry of speculation over the resumption of six-party talks on North Korea’s denuclearization and persistent inter-Korean tension following the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship in March.

The scandal has raised skepticism about the government’s roadmap to phase out a state-administered exam to select diplomats by 2013 and instead fill vacant positions with experts from the private sector, a move to boost flexibility at the ministry by removing the robust hierarchy.

“As fair competition is not guaranteed, the prospective open-format recruiting system could be misused to give unfair advantages to children of high-ranking officials,” said Rep. Hong Joon-pyo of the ruling Grand National Party (GNP).

Due to nature of the work of career diplomats, most of their children have lived overseas for years when they were teenagers so that they are proficient in multiple foreign languages, including English. For that reason, a great number of positions at the ministry that require native-level foreign language proficiency have been occupied by children of high-ranking diplomats.

Rep. Hong Jung-wook of the GNP said 41 percent of successful applicants for positions requiring native-level foreign language proficiency between 1997 and 2003 turned out to be such children.

“We should not discriminate against the children for their parents’ status,” Hong said. “But to do so, it should be first ensured that there is no preferential treatment in recruitment.”

Yu’s most likely successor appears to be Kim Sung-hwan, senior presidential secretary for foreign affairs, government sources said. Kim, a career diplomat, served as vice foreign minister before taking the position at Cheong Wa Dae in 2008. Former Ambassador to Washington Lee Tae-sik and former Ambassador to Russia Lee Kyu-hyung are also said to be on the shortlist for the top diplomatic post

외교관 자녀 7명 채용 과정도 조사

유명환 외교통상부 장관의 딸 특채 의혹을 감사 중인 행정안전부가 유 장관 딸 외에 외교부에 근무하는 다른 외교관 자녀의 채용 과정까지 감사를 확대해 파장이 커질 전망이다.

5일 행안부와 외교부에 따르면 행안부 특별인사감사팀은 4일 외교부에 유 장관 딸 특채 관련 자료뿐만 아니라 외교부에 채용된 다른 외교관 자녀와 관련한 인사 기록도 제출받았다.

현재 외교부에 근무하는 계약직 직원 400여명 중 7명이 외교관 자녀인 것으로 알려졌는데, 이들의 채용 과정에도 특혜를 주고자 법령을 위반한 사례가 없었는지 확인한다는 것이다.

유 장관이 4일 이번 사태의 책임을 지고 사의를 표명했지만 행안부는 유 장관의 딸은 물론 외교부의 다른 고위층 자녀가 채용된 과정까지 모두 들여다본다는 방침이다.