Confirmation uncertain for FM nominee Kang

Kang Kyung-wha, the foreign minister nominee, answers a question during a confirmation hearing at the National Assembly, Wednesday. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

By Kim Rahn

Foreign Minister nominee Kang Kyung-wha was grilled by opposition lawmakers at a confirmation hearing, Wednesday, over alleged past wrongdoing involving her and members of her family.

While she gave her account on the allegations, the lawmakers said she was unfit to head the foreign affairs ministry, showing unfavorable signs about endorsing her. Although the National Assembly’s approval is not binding for her appointment, it remains to be seen whether President Moon Jae-in will push ahead with the appointment if the parties do not endorse her, because it would break his own pledge for cooperation with the parliament.

Opposition lawmakers first grilled Kang over her false residence registration. She admitted that she did so to help her daughter enter a high school of her choice, and apologized for it.

“It was a misjudgment as a public official. I truly apologize,” she said.

It was found that the house of the false address belonged to the school, unlike Cheong Wa Dae’s earlier explanation that it belonged to a relative of Kang. She said there was a misunderstanding and she could not explain it in detail as she was on a flight when the presidential office was nominating her.

Some opposition lawmakers also took issue with her daughter’s U.S. citizenship. The girl, who had dual citizenship after being born in the U.S., renounced her Korean citizenship after becoming an adult. Some said it was improper for a person with a child of another nationality to hold a ranking public position.

Kang said her daughter promised to regain her Korean nationality by giving up her U.S. one. But she also said she does not agree with the former government’s rule not to assign an official with such children to overseas posts. “I think it is behind the times to deprive a person of a chance to serve the country because of their children’s nationality,” she said.

Kang denied real estate speculation allegations. About tax evasion suspicions, she said she found out some unpaid taxes while preparing for the hearing and paid them immediately. Kang also denied her academic paper plagiarism allegation, saying she had only minor technical errors in her references.

Comfort women issue

Kang said if she is appointed, she would try to resolve the issue on Japan’s wartime sexual enslavement of Korean women, by handling it from the victims’ point of view.

Korea and Japan reached a deal in 2015 to resolve the issue “finally and irreversibly” in exchange for Japan providing 1 billion yen for the victims. But many in Korea did not accept the deal which did not reflect the victims’ opinions.

“For a person who was in charge of human rights at the U.N. for six years, many parts of the deal confused me when it came out,” she said, adding the deal did not seem to reflect the victims’ stance or address many factors that would be left for history to judge.

She said the phrase of “final and irreversible resolution” is something that can only be found in a military agreement. “Eventually, most Koreans do not accept the deal emotionally.

“But it is a reality that the agreement exists and it is international practice to keep it once it is reached,” Kang said, adding she would come up with measures to complement the deal.

Regarding the controversial deployment of a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery, Kang said it requires the Assembly’s ratification. “It was a decision jointly made by South Korea and the U.S. for security,” she said. “The key of the controversy stems from a lack of public consensus.”

She said she would consider sending a special delegation to China to better explain the deployment. China has opposed the missile defense system and taken economic retaliatory measures against Korea.

For North Korea’s nuclear and missile issue, Kang pledged a stern attitude toward provocations, but added she plans to make every effort to restart the dialogue as well.

In the meantime, a group of scholars studying Japan’s sexual slavery issue called on the Assembly to endorse Kang, with nearly 20,000 people signing up for an online petition for the endorsement.

“We believe Kang is the right person to resolve the issue righteously. She can see the victims’ pain from a woman’s point of view, and she can handle the issue from the viewpoint of human rights, not only of diplomacy,” Research Network on Japanese Military Sexual Slavery said on its Facebook page.

The group said Kang is a rare talent who has had a long career at the U.N. and her experience will help her solve the sexual slavery issue which has become a worldwide “gender” issue.