Park Ji-won is a writer for The Korea Times who has been covering a wide range of topics from Korea’s culture to its politics. An avid journalism enthusiast to the core, Ji-won brings a thoughtful and unique perspective to every topic she covers. On weekends, you'll often find her contemplating life’s purpose on a yoga mat — with a cup of quality tea in hand. A native Korean speaker by birth and fluent in English through her work, she went to college in Japan and is learning Chinese and French — hoping to add Polish, Russian and Thai to the mix.
Kang urged to take full control of foreign ministry
Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, right, speaks during a meeting with her Japanese counterpart, Taro Kono, on the sidelines of the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting in Paris, Thursday. Yonhap
By Park Ji-won
By Park Ji-won
Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha is urged to take full control over the ministry as a series of tussles relating to the ethics of ministry officials and diplomats is jeopardizing her leadership.
The minister is President Moon Jae-in's ambitious choice for the post as part of the President's measures to dispel the ministry's “male-oriented and bureaucratic legacy” and instill new values. Kang has an extensive career in the ministry and at the United Nations.
The minister has excellent communication skills, the cornerstone of diplomacy, as she served as the official interpreter for former President Kim Dae-jung and worked for many years at the U.N. But her highest priority should be to keep the ministry system working.
On Friday, the ministry said it will summon a diplomat at the South Korean Embassy in Washington, D.C., as the diplomat admitted he leaked details of a telephone conversation between President Moon and U.S. President Donald Trump to his high school alumnus, Rep. Khang Hyo-shang, a lawmaker at the country's main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP).
Making matters worse, it's been said other diplomats at the embassy also shared key specifics of Moon-Trump phone talks, the details of which were classified as the “third-highest confidential.” As Trump is planning to visit South Korea in June for a summit with Moon, the leak may hurt mutual trust between the two allies.
“It is time for her to show her leadership,” said a source who is familiar with the issue. “Officials of the Prime Minister's Office were also uncomfortable about the ministry's apparent unwillingness to move forward on the complex diplomatic agenda including the wartime forced labor issue with Japan.”
On a related note, talks between Minister Kang and her Japanese counterpart Taro Kono held recently in France failed to produce any visible results over pending issues.
“It is time for her to patch up the holes in the ministry,” the source said. This time, the leak could negatively influence nuclear diplomacy between Washington and Seoul.
Lee Jong-chul, spokesman of the minor opposition Bareunmirae Party (BMP), said it's the responsibility of the minister to address the latest issues relating to codes of conduct.
“The incumbent diplomat's leak of confidential diplomatic information is an act of betrayal against the country,”
Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun of the LKP asked the government and the ministry to apply measures to avoid further fusses, as a stronger alliance between Washington and Seoul is required to move forward President Moon's peace process.
Amid stalled denuclearization talks between Pyongyang and Washington, the allies are tasked with dealing with key issues such as sanctions exemptions on Iranian oil imports and resumption of inter-Korean economic cooperation.
At next month's upcoming G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, Moon and Trump will “discuss ways to establish permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula and enhance the alliance between the two nations,” according to Cheong Wa Dae.
The ministry has been under fire over what critics say were “unprofessional” mistakes.
A director-level official put up a crumpled national Korean flag for a meeting between Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun and his Spanish counterpart Fernando Valenzuela in Seoul in March. He was dismissed from the post a week later. During a press conference with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in March, Moon used the expression “Selamat sore,” which means “good (mid)day” in Indonesian, instead of saying “Selamat petang” in Malaysian.