New Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha took part in the ASEAN Regional Forum which closed on Tuesday and held bilateral talks with her counterparts from the U.S., China and other countries on the sidelines. There were some disturbing scenes that cast doubt over her ability as foreign minister. Such concerns were amplified during her meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Wang has voiced his government’s adamant opposition to the deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in Korea on many occasions. During his meeting with Kang, Wang once again made some very offensive comments about it, saying that the Moon administration had “thrown cold water on bilateral relations that had been improving.” Wang was referring to Moon’s decision to expedite the deployment of the U.S. anti-missile shield in response to Pyongyang’s test of a Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) last month.
Many Koreans had hoped that the former high-ranking official at the United Nations would be a departure from her predecessor Yun Byung-se, who was slammed for his passive diplomacy in handling thorny issues with China and Japan. However, she let many people down with her lethargic response to Wang’s outburst on THAAD by only saying that she recognized the need to solve bilateral problems through communication.
It is China that has poured “cold water” on bilateral relations by meddling with our national security decisions.
She should have told Wang that his criticism of THAAD was inappropriate and urged Beijing to stop its retaliatory measures against Korean businesses. When asked about why she did not mention this issue, she reportedly said that there was not enough time. The meeting continued for almost an hour, so blaming it on a lack of time is not very convincing.
Before her appointment, there was a lot of concern about her ability to deal with the four major powers (the United States, China, Japan and Russia) and the North Korean nuclear issue as she had little experience with them over the course of her diplomatic career. Her meeting with Wang did little to assuage such concerns. The foreign minister should be resolute about defending the national interest at all times.