By Yi Whan-woo
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Tuesday it plans to create two bureaus that will exclusively handle China and Japan related issues.
This is to reflect the growing importance of diplomacy with China and Japan, ministry officials said.
The ministry reported this plan to the presidential advisory panel for national planning, the de-facto transition committee for President Moon Jae-in.
The ministry has a decades-old bureau that handles U.S. related affairs, but China and Japan have been dealt with by the Northeast Asian Affairs Bureau.
“The new bureaus, if established, will solely cover issues regarding Beijing and Tokyo,” a ministry official said.
The envisioned China Bureau may be divided into three divisions -- each responsible for China’s central government, its provincial governments and Hong Kong.
The envisioned Japan Bureau may be comprised of two divisions.
“This is not just about establishing new bureaus. The reorganization reflects the government’s will to pursue more balanced diplomacy,” a source said.
An advisory panel member, who asked not be named, cited growing importance of China in Korea’s foreign relations.
“It will be problematic if our competence in ties with China remains low,” he said.
The two former conservative governments of Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye considered setting up an independent bureau on China but failed to do so, according to sources.
They said budget constraints, limited human resources and other hurdles could also pose a challenge for the Moon administration’s push to create the new bureaus.
President Moon has called to diversify and expand the scope of Korea’s diplomacy.
He emphasized bolstering ties with the member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the European Union to resolve issues on North Korea’s denuclearization.
The President cited the need to reform the foreign ministry, claiming that it is dominated by an elite inner circle who passed the civil service exam to pick career diplomats.
Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha vowed last week to form a taskforce aimed at overhauling her ministry.
Kang, a former senior U.N. official, is Seoul’s first foreign minister who did not take the civil service exam.