British envoy steps up as mentor for aspiring diplomats

British Ambassador to Korea Simon Smith poses with Korean middle and high school students during Youth Ambassador Academy program hosted by the Korean Culture Association at Olympic Parktel in Songpa-gu, southern Seoul, Aug. 9. / Korea Times photo by Yi Whan-woo

By Yi Whan-woo

“Your Majesty…”

A teen student mistakenly referred to British Ambassador to Korea Simon Smith sitting across a small roundtable from her during a Q&A session of the Youth Ambassador Academy in Seoul, Aug. 9.

Smith, who is referred to as “Your Excellency” like other foreign envoys in Seoul, is not the type of person Korean middle and high school students usually meet.

Asking him questions in English face-to-face was apparently a nerve-wracking moment for some of them, even though they volunteered to meet him.

And Smith faithfully answered each of more than a dozen students who queued and waited for their turn during the academy — a program hosted by the Korean Culture Association for aspiring diplomats — at Seoul Olympic Parktel in Songpa-gu.

Over 70 middle and high school students, including those from foreign language high schools, joined a meeting with the British envoy.

This was Smith’s first participation in the academy — held each summer and winter with foreign envoys being invited as mentors —since he took office in 2018.

The questions varied depending on the students’ interests. Among them were criteria for solving diplomatic problems, use of private data, employment, the most important values in life, British immigration policy, Brexit, useful college majors for aspiring diplomats, differences between British and Korean education and what the British think of Korea.

The Q&A session lasted about 90 minutes — well past its scheduled time.

Smith said understanding the other side is important when tackling diplomatic problems. He also underlined that diplomacy in many circumstances is multilateral, referring to his interaction with representatives from Russia, China, Iran and other countries when he was the Britain’s governor on the Board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Regarding Brexit, understanding what has happened, why it is happening and what will happen is necessary.

“With this big difficult issue, there is a big enough job to do to ensure that the issue is properly explained and that people’s understanding of it is improved,” he said.

The useful college majors leading to a diplomat career may vary by country. For the United Kingdom, majors are not necessarily important. But “how people can think, how quickly they can solve problems, how effectively they can describe problems, how effective they are at negotiation and how effective they are at persuading people” are among skills that the British diplomats care about, according to Smith.