Diplomats armed with '3S'

By Park Moo-jong

Koreans and Japanese, among other peoples, have something special in coining neologisms, using specific Roman alphabet letters like "3D," "3S," or "3B."

Most well-known of them must be the 3Ds of Japanese origin, that stand for dirty, dangerous and difficult, referring to any sort of blue collar jobs such as those of a construction worker or a production line hand.

Of course, in this IT era, 3D is already famous thanks to the fabulous 3D printing, referring to the process used to create a three-dimensional object.

If a person asks a Korean middle school student who the 3Bs are in classical music, they, without hesitation, would answer: "Bach, Beethoven and Brahms."

How about 3S? The 3 Ss are from the first letter of sports, sex and screen for the so-called "3B policy" of withholding information from the public.

After World War II, Japan and the Republic of Korea operated the so-called 3S policy in a bid to "dumb down" people, by diverting their concerns to sports, sex and entertainment (screen), and away from social or political issues.

The origin of the 3Ss policy is the 3F (fado, Fatima, football) policy, symbolizing the Portuguese values under the dictatorship of Antonio de Oliveira Salazar (1889-1970). The 3Fs can also stand for female, feeling and fiction, as predicted by the American futurist John Naisbitt in his 1982 book "Megatrends." as the three keywords that would lead the 21st century.

Besides these, another neologism has been the talk of the town these days following Moon Jae-in government's first reshuffle of foreign mission chiefs, 16 of them were brought from outside of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. That's "3S diplomats."

The basic qualification for a foreign service officer, regardless of his or her rank in the mission, is no doubt the ability to speak the language of the foreign country or otherwise English at least.

What's the role and duty of diplomats?

They are supposed to advance the economic, political, social and cultural interests of their countries to the diplomatic representatives of other nations and to engage in complex negotiations with their international counterparts to ensure the continued success and prosperity of their homeland.

The ability to communicate with their foreign counterparts and other peoples is a must, through either English or the language of the foreign country.

Since 2004, I have attended numerous events and parties hosted by foreign embassies in Seoul and talked with more than 300 ambassadors in total.

There used to be some Korean participants and ambassadors, who, I didn't think, could understand English well.

They had no other way but to be "silent," only drinking wine, and "smiling" from time to time, in an apparent gesture that they understood, and then they went out to "smoke." In international seminars or conferences, they finally went into "sleep." The 3Ss stand for silent, smoke and sleep, with no wonder. They are called "3S diplomats."

I don't think such ambassadors who were so poor in speaking the global language could fulfill their missions for the national interest. They only managed to complete their mostly three-year term.

The case of Uzbek Ambassador to Seoul Vitaly Fen can be a good model as a competent head of a diplomatic mission for he is fluent in Korean, and is of Korean descent. He served in Seoul from 1995 to 2013 and retired at the age of 66. But the new Uzbek president re-employed him as the envoy to Seoul last year in recognition of his proficiency in Korean, in particular. He began studying Korean in 1988 when he led the then Soviet Union team to the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Many people sighed after the government announced the new list of new foreign missions chiefs twice since its inauguration in May, including ambassadors to the four powers ― the United States, China, Russia and Japan.

They are all rookies in the diplomatic field. What a coincidence! But they have one thing absolute in common. They were all members of President Moon's election campaign team.

Ambassador Cho Yoon-je to the U.S. is an economist, Ambassador Noh Young-min to China was a lawmaker, Ambassador Lee Su-hoon to Japan is a professor mostly versed in North Korean affairs and Ambassador Woo Yoon-keun to Russia was a secretary general of the National Assembly.

As former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who was a career diplomat himself, deplored, anyone can become a diplomat in the Moon administration.

Adding salt to injury, Ambassador Noh is known to be unable to speak Chinese, and Ambassador Lee is almost the same. Then how about their English speaking ability? What is surprising is that the newly appointed ambassadors did not undergo foreign language tests, a must for any diplomat who is going to be nominated as an ambassador.

Any diplomat who cannot speak English or the local language should give up his or her role as a foreign services officer.

Diplomatic experience and skill are essential for a country like South Korea beleaguered by global powers geopolitically in order to survive.

The ambassadorial posts are not the booty of war.

I am afraid that we may also have 3S diplomats at this crucial time when seasoned diplomatic maneuvering and skills are required to help ease tension on the Korean Peninsula amid North Korea's ceaseless nuclear threats.

Park Moo-jong is a standing adviser of The Korea Times. He served as president-publisher of the nation's first English newspaper founded in1951 from 2004 to 2014 after working as a reporter of the daily since 1974. He can be reached at moojong@ktimes.com or emjei29@gmail.com.