By Yoon Won-sup
Staff Reporter
The presidential transition committee said it will expand the role of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and improve Seoul-Washington relations based on President-elect Lee Myung-bak's pragmatic diplomacy, dubbed ``MB doctrine.''
During the ministry's briefing on its work, the committee asked the ministry to draw up a new strategy to realize the MB doctrine with more powers transferred from the Unification Ministry and the presidential office.
The committee said it is considering transferring control of the nation's diplomacy, which is now mainly under Cheong Wa Dae, to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
A member of the committee said, ``We were briefed by the foreign ministry on how distrust in Seoul-Washington relations was created over the past five years and how the ministry will fix it based on President-elect Lee's foreign policy.''
Lee Dong-kwan, spokesman of the committee, said that the ministry confessed there were some differences between South Korea and the United States on the bilateral alliance and inter-Korean summit at the early stage of the Roh Moo-hyun administration. The differences negatively influenced bilateral relations, Lee added.
``Basically, we agreed to expand the function of the ministry in foreign affairs,'' Lee said but declined to elaborate.
The planned enlargement of the ministry comes from criticism that the ministry failed to play its role as its powers were usurped by the presidential office for unification, foreign affairs and security, and the National Security Council (NSC).
Whenever diplomatic friction happened over the past five years, it was due to Cheong Wa Dae leading the nation's diplomacy without reflecting the ministry's opinion, according to critics. Some examples were found not only in Seoul-Washington relations but also in Japanese history textbook's distortion of Korean history and conflict in the designation of an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the East Sea with Japan.
Particularly, after North Korea conducted a nuclear weapon experiment in 2006, Cheong Wa Dae and the ministry voiced different approaches to the issue, raising concerns over the absence of centralized control.
The committee is also considering transferring the external role of the Unification Ministry and much of the NSC functions to the Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry.
But the committee reportedly dropped its original plan to separate the trade function from the ministry because trade negotiations require a political approach.
The committee discussed with the ministry how to develop professional diplomats ― in particular, consular officials. It concluded that Korea lacks sufficient consular personnel with an increasing number of Koreans going to and living in other countries.