Diplomat dismissed for leaking Moon-Trump secret talk

By Lee Min-hyung

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs decided Thursday to dismiss a diplomat, working in the Korean Embassy in Washington, D.C., for leaking confidential diplomatic information to a lawmaker, according to the ministry's internal disciplinary committee, Thursday.

“After conducting an hours-long review on the case, the committee decided to dismiss the official for a breach of secrecy,” a ministry official said. Members of the committee, headed by the ministry's First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Sei-young, included four external experts.

The dismissal is the highest-level of discipline from the ministry.

This came a few weeks after the official leaked the content of a telephone conversation between President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump to his high school senior, Rep. Khang Hyo-shang from the main opposition Liberty Korea Party.

Another diplomat also received a pay cut for three months for helping the dismissed official access the information.

Meanwhile, the foreign ministry filed criminal complaints against the diplomat and Khang with the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, Tuesday.

The prosecution will look into whether the diplomat's information leak was intentional. He claims that he mistakenly shared the Presidents' dialogue to get the facts straight with regard to Khang's negative perception on government policy regarding the U.S.

On Wednesday, the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) filed a complaint against Khang with the National Assembly's ethics committee.

“All lawmakers should have a high sense of ethics to retain the honorary status and authority of the Assembly as representatives of the public,” the DPK said in the complaint.

“But Khang was negligent in his duty as a lawmaker by engaging in the act of collecting and leaking diplomatic secrets,” it said.

The lawmaker responded by saying his act was aimed at showing the public the truth behind President Moon Jae-in's ongoing diplomacy with the U.S.

After obtaining the telephone dialogue, the lawmaker said Moon asked for Trump's visit to Seoul after his schedule in Japan between May 25 and 28. The opposition bloc has since stepped up criticism of the Moon administration for “begging for Trump's visit.”