Korean political, business leaders not seen on Trump schedule

By Kim Tae-gyu, Park Ji-won

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has met with international heavyweights both in politics and business since his surprise victory in November.

Among them were Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Alibaba founder Jack Ma and SoftBank chief Masayoshi Son; but no Korean big shots.

Korean political and business leaders have failed to grab the opportunity to affect Trump in his political and business policies early on due to a lack of proactive diplomatic efforts.

“The government should have formed a delegation including business leaders to meet Trump and his aides just as Japanese Prime Minister Abe did,” Prof. Lee Phil-sang at Seoul National University said.

He said the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye and the ongoing political scandal should not be an excuse to ignore the need for policymakers to meet with Trump and his aides.

“It’s urgent to open communication channels,” Lee said. “Better late than never.”

President Park was impeached last month over the corruption scandal involving her shadowy confidant Choi Soon-sil, who had illegally interfered in state affairs and is currently behind bars.

As a result, Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn is the acting president now with the Constitutional Court expected to rule on the impeachment case in a few months.

Soon after his election victory, Trump called Park for a 10-minute conversation but there was no further communication between the two.

Professor Kim Sang-jo at Hansung University also noted that the country should set up a communication channel with the new U.S. administration as soon as possible, but he added that there are major stumbling blocks.

“First of all, Prime Minister Hwang is notoriously inactive. He will not try to do something that might cause trouble later,” Kim said. “Plus, the opposition parties would not agree with Hwang flying to the United States to meet Trump.”

Other analysts worry that the belated contact between Seoul and Washington could generate further problems at a time when the nation faces diplomatic hitches due to the planned deployment of a U.S. missile defense system here.

Seoul and Washington agreed to deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery this year in order to tackle North Korea’s missile threats.

The announcement angered China, which is opposed to the system because it could also monitor airborne objects in the world’s most populous country.

Although it officially denies doing so, Beijing is suspected of having imposed retaliatory steps against Korean companies.

Prof. Kim Tae-dong at Sungkyunkwan University said Hwang should not meet Trump.

“Such a meeting would be aimed at giving some credence to this government, which has already failed,” said Kim who worked as a senior economic presidential aide during the Kim Dae-jung administration.

He did not elaborate but seemed to mean it was better to leave diplomatic issues with the U.S. for the next administration to deal with.