KOREA: Diplomats probed for Roh attacks

President vows to plug leaks of government information

The Korea Herald
Tuesday, January 13, 2004

By Sim Sung-tae

Cheong Wa Dae is investigating Foreign Ministry officials suspected of making "inappropriate and intolerable comments" about President Roh Moo-hyun's diplomacy toward the United States, presidential spokesman Yoon Tai-young said yesterday.

An intelligence report on the purported comments led to Cheong Wa Dae's probe, but Yoon refused to give further details.

"An investigation is under way whether some Foreign Ministry officials made the inappropriate and intolerable remarks and leaked government information to the media in an inappropriate manner," Yoon said in a news briefing.

The presidential office would deal sternly with any leaking of government information by public officials, he added.

The National Security Council is also involved.

"The secretariat of the National Security Council transferred the list of suspected Foreign Ministry officials to the office of Moon Jae-in, senior presidential secretary for civil affairs and Moon's office is in charge of the investigation," deputy NSC head Lee Jong-seok said.

Korean media have reported that Cheong Wa Dae and the National Intelligence Service have recently been looking into allegations that Director General Wi Sung-lac of the ministry's North American Affairs Bureau and several other officials made comments critical of Roh's U.S. policy and were at odds with the NSC on the matter.

Yoon, however, dismissed as groundless a report that Cheong Wa Dae plans to replace Foreign and Defense Ministry officials in charge of the negotiations for relocation of the U.S. Yongsan Garrison in Seoul who have conflicts with the National Security Council.

"It is not true that Cheong Wa Dae and the ministries are at odds over the relocation of the U.S. military facilities," Yoon said. "President Roh has closely discussed this with the relevant ministers and delivered his guidelines on the issue."

Meanwhile, sources said the investigation began immediately after a senior Foreign Ministry official sent a letter recently to Cheong Wa Dae saying some officials of the ministry's North American Affairs Bureau had been critical of Roh and the NSC's U.S. and other foreign policy directions.

In the letter, the unidentified official denounced his colleagues in the Foreign Ministry for likening the deputy head of the NSC and other young NSC staff members to the ultraconservative Taliban of Afghanistan, the sources said.

Another allegation in the letter is that Foreign Minister Yoon Young-kwan and Amb. Han Sung-joo had been sidelined in the decision-making process under the Roh administration, mainly at the urging of the Cheong Wa Dae inner circle.

After the letter was received by Cheong Wa Dae, the NIS interrogated the Foreign Ministry officials in question, the sources said. The nation's top intelligence agency also questioned reporters who wrote stories on conflicts between the NSC and the Foreign Ministry over Seoul's position on a troop dispatch to Iraq, repositioning of U.S. troops in Seoul and other foreign policy issues.

"It appears Cheong Wa Dae might have felt the need to keep in check senior foreign ministry officials who are outspoken about President Roh and the NSC's foreign policy directions," said a Foreign Ministry official, who asked not to be identified.

Reports have said conservative bureaucrats of the foreign and defense ministries have recently been at odds with the deputy chief of the NSC over a variety of sensitive issues involving North Korea and the United States.

Analysts predict the probe of the "intolerable remarks" may result in a major shakeup of defense and foreign ministry officials dealing with U.S. and North Korean affairs in order to consolidate cooperation with Cheong Wa Dae on foreign policy issues.

Date Posted: 1/13/2004