By Lee Tae-hoon
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MOFAT) dispatched its inspection officials to China Friday to look into allegations that Korean diplomats in Beijing had a golf outing at a time when tensions between Korea and neighboring countries reached an all-time high, an official said.
“A group of MOFAT inspection officials left for China Friday night to look into alleged negligence of duties among South Korean envoys there, including Ambassador Lee Kyu-hyung,” a MOFAT official said asking for anonymity.
Lee is known to be a golf enthusiast. The top South Korean diplomat in Beijing recently drew strong criticism for his failure to protect the rights of South Korean citizens in China, including a prominent human rights activist Kim Young-hwan.
The official noted that staff members of the South Korean Embassy in Beijing held a golf contest at 1 p.m. Wednesday shortly after attending a ceremony to commemorate the 67th anniversary of Liberation Day.
Of 82 embassy staffers, slightly more than half of them reportedly attended the golf competition which was held while Jang Song-thaek, the powerful uncle and top guardian of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, was making a sudden visit to China.
Observers say diplomats in the Northeast Asian region should have stayed vigilant on the day as diplomatic tensions between South Korea and Japan were also at a boiling point at that time over lingering colonial-era issues of Dokdo and comfort women.
A diplomat source says the South Korean diplomatic mission in China has long held a golf event on national holidays in time for Independence Movement Day and the Liberation Day.
One of the troubled South Korean diplomats in China argued that the embassy could not cancel Wednesday’s golf event as it was held as part of a farewell party for several outgoing staffers.
He also refuted the allegation that the embassy staff failed to do their duties of monitoring and reporting crucial developments in China on the public holiday, such as the activities of the North Korean delegation.
MOFAT also downplayed the golf scandal by arguing that only two of the 14 staff members responsible for the monitoring of Jang’s China visit attended the outing.
The ministry, however, quickly changed its stance and decided to launch an internal probe as public sentiment grew negative about the incident.
“It is unlikely that the golf contest caused a serious problem in them performing their duty, but it would have been wiser for them to refrain from recreational activities on such a symbolic day,” another MOFAT official said.
She noted that a host of senior government officials have suffered from backlashes for playing golf on certain public holidays such as Memorial Day.