Lee's 'resources diplomacy' under scrutiny

Former President Lee Myung-bak

By Jun Ji-hye

The National Assembly approved the establishment of a committee Monday that will look into the alleged bungled “resources diplomacy” of former President Lee Myung-bak. The special parliamentary committee plans to conduct a 100-day investigation starting Jan. 12.

The main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) called for Lee and his elder brother, former lawmaker Lee Sang-deuk, as well as Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan, who was then trade, industry and energy minister, to be questioned over the policy.

“We will see whether there were any irregularities,” said Rep. Noh Young-min of the NPAD, chairman of the investigation committee.

The Lee administration has been accused of spending tens of billions of dollars on various natural resources development projects overseas with few results.

Enormous losses have already been proven in a probe by the Board of Audit and Inspection.

“There have been various suspicions of corruption and officials’ excessive push for projects to make achievements before Lee’s term of office expired,” said Noh.

The ruling Saenuri Party recommended Lee supporters, including Rep. Kweon Seong-dong, for the special committee.

It rejected the NPAD’s demand that the subject of the probe be limited to the Lee government.

The ruling Party said the 18-member committee needed to dig out cases of all previous governments involving overseas resources development projects, noting that such projects actually began during the Kim Dae-jung government.

The NPAD accepted the request that the governments of former presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun also be included in the investigation.

There is an increasing possibility that the probe could turn into a fight between Lee supporters and Roh followers.

Lee was elected president under the banner of the defunct Grand National Party, the Saenuri Party’s predecessor, while Kim and Roh were elected from the Democratic Party, now the NPAD.

But it remains to be seen whether Lee will appear before the Assembly.

Asked on Dec. 18 if he would be willing to do so, Lee told reporters, “That sounds ridiculous.”

During a parliamentary audit in October, Rep. Baek Jae-hyun from the NPAD revealed that the Korea National Oil Corp. (KNOC) was expected to suffer losses of about 1.7 trillion won from its failed investment in Harvest Operations, a Canadian oil producer, and its money-losing refinery North Atlantic Refining Limited. He said that when KNOC took over in 2009, Harvest was already a nonviable company with a debt-to-equity ratio of 2,000 percent.

Three energy-related state companies including KNOC invested about 27 trillion won in 69 projects abroad from 2008 through 2012 during the Lee administration, but they have so far recouped only 3.7 trillion won, resulting in snowballing debt.

Follow Jun Ji-hye on Twitter @TheKopJihye