Envoy With Faustian Heart
By Oh Young-jin
Assistant Managing Editor
Perhaps he needs an entry to top off a long, distinguished bureaucratic career that he hopes will be engraved on his tombstone. Or he thinks he has one last job to do for the nation that he hasn't finished after spending nearly 40 years moving from one plum government job to another. Maybe, it is his lack of ``political testosterone,'' which gives him flexibility to serve any master who happens to be in power.
For whatever his personal reasons may be, former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, now ambassador-designate to the United States, has proved to have a great ability to keep himself on the sunny side of power.
From the perspective of the incumbent government, Han's appointment serves many purposes.
First, the 60-year career bureaucrat worked as prime minister, No. 2 post, in the previous administration.
So giving Han the ambassador job is a cunning public relations move to boost the image of the Lee administration's personnel management. Lee's aides may be expecting the same effects as those from U.S. President Obama's decision to keep Defense Secretary Gates, Bush's appointee.
However, differences between Han and Gates are unmistakable. For instance, Han had worked for much of the previous administration, being involved in key policies such as anti-property speculation measures, which are being dismantled under the current conservative government. Gates was brought in as relief for his predecessor Rumsfeld, the lightning rod for public ire from Bush's Iraq war.
It is also worth contemplating how Washington will react to Ambassador Han, who has little connections with the incumbent Seoul government. After all, the top envoy is not a courier but represents the government back home. For Han, the task would be difficult, considering he stands for the government in which he is not an inner circle member.
Even the regional considerations don't work magic. The Lee administration is certainly hoping that Ambassador Han will present a case to dispute any claim that the current government ignores the people of Honam, the southwestern region of the nation, while promoting the interest of Yeongnam, the southeastern region, which is the power base of President Lee Myung-bak and the governing Grand National Party. Han is from Jeonju, North Jeolla Province.
I strongly doubt that his hometown people take him as their native son.
Han had concealed his real birthplace until Kim Dae-jung, better known as DJ, was elected as president in 1997. Kim, a liberal-minded head of state, was Roh's predecessor and is from Honam. Before DJ took over, Han pretended to be from Seoul. To be fair, Han's belated coming-out on his birthplace could be understandable in light of the fact that people from Honam were often discriminated against in promotions or other personnel affairs before the DJ presidency brought a sense of balance to the skewed pecking order of society.
Then, his acquisition of Ph.D. in economics at Harvard University certainly didn't hurt his chance of getting the ambassador job. The Seoul government is searching for connections that can link it with the Democratic administration of President Obama, a Harvard Law School graduate.
Han is an avid supporter of the stalled free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States, the mutual ratification of which is one of President Lee's top priorities. In all likelihood, any FTA deal will end up as a compromise. Already, Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon, an avid FTA supporter like Han, is showing his limits of credibility by overstating his ``no-renegotiation'' stance. Will Han be able to persuade the Obama people to drop their opposition and push it through the increasingly-protectionist Congress?
Besides, the Korean ambassador has a lot more complicated issues to cover than FTA. Topping his list of priorities will be, by all means, North Korea, which is outside Han's area of expertise.
A footnote is that Ambassador Han has been made part of Seoul's unenviable tradition of sending overqualified ambassadors to Washington. Diplomacy is a delicate balancing act that pursues equilibrium. By this standard, Han is too big for the job.
Maybe, I have portrayed Han in too a negative manner. I believe, however, that many people also share my views and worries about him. It is the duty of former and current public leaders such as Han to tell the public about questions arising from their behaviors. If Han went to the United States as a new Korean ambassador without explaining his switches on political allegiance, I fear that he will set another example showing that self-promotion is the trump card of life. Just imagine how reinforcing the effects it will have on younger generations.
I hope that Han will take time to explain himself perhaps in a news conference. If he needs a fresh start, that is the way he should do.