Challenges for Korea`s diplomatic service

The road of diplomacy was never ordained to be an easy one.

It`s hard just getting started, with more than 1,600 individuals vying for 40 seats in the diplomatic service via an annual government exam.

Those who are selected, naturally, come from the nation`s top schools - Seoul National University is the common alma mater for diplomats at the Foreign Ministry - and some even were known as child prodigies.

In short, they are our society`s elite.

But they are too few.

Korea`s Foreign Ministry currently employs some 1,920 diplomats. Slightly more than 1,000 work for the Seoul office. That translates into roughly one diplomat for every 25,000 Koreans.

Japan`s diplomatic workforce is almost triple the amount with 6,000. Even in the Netherlands - whose population is only a third of Korea`s - the government employs almost 3,000 diplomats.

In Korea, however, it is hard for diplomats to gripe about the heavy workload because old school officials are still loath to open the entrance doors wider, critics say.

"They (diplomats) revel in their elitist backgrounds. They may be swamped with work, but they still are reluctant to part with power," said a government official of another department who worked closely with Foreign Ministry officials.

Not to say that the older generation of diplomats failed to do their share of hard work, he said, emphasizing that they definitely pulled their weight to get Korea to the current elevated global status.



"They started when nobody even knew where Korea was. You have to give them credit for putting Korea back on the map," he said.

But now this old system of selecting talent is no longer efficient, critics point out.

In Japan, where the tradition of such state exams has its roots, the exam-based entrance system has been abolished because the government ruled the criteria as being outdated and inefficient.

A bigger problem, however, seems to be a lack of training programs once the diplomat wannabes pass their exams.

Except for a brief, 79-day training course given shortly after entering the ministry, there are no other education opportunities.

The young diplomats are, therefore, literally on their own to face the world while representing Korea.

Another reason for the "bite-size" workforce is the shortage of government funds.

Korea`s diplomatic budget so far stands at less than 1 percent of the government`s total annual expenditure - approximately 0.66 percent.

The Foreign Ministry is seeking to increase it up to 0.78 percent next year.

To address these and other pressing "diplomatic" challenges, the Foreign Ministry last month launched an ad-hoc committee armed with two main objectives: overhauling human resources and nabbing a bigger budget.

"There are so many areas that diplomats need to be skilled in and have knowledge in, but the current system bars such diversity," said Chung Eui-hwa, a legislator of the ruling Grand National Party who is on the committee for bolstering the nation`s diplomatic competitiveness.

Diplomatic Academy

The Diplomatic Academy represents the government`s attempts to address the need to overhaul the diplomatic service. It is the tentative name for potentially a school that will specialize in training diplomats who would hopefully come from diverse backgrounds.

The plan now is to select 20 from the academy and 20 from the state-administered exams each year to gradually phase out the exams.

Park Sun-young, a Liberty Forward Party lawmaker also on the diplomatic competitiveness committee, has called for the state-run exams to be eventually eliminated, saying it is virtually impossible to select diplomats based solely on written exams.

Those selected for the Diplomatic Academy would go through a two-year course designed to better prepare for the "real" world and consequently raise the level of the diplomatic workforce to a higher caliber.

The specific curriculum and faculty have yet to be decided.

Entering the academy could also be a short cut into the ministry for those who are less adept at "cramming."

The academy hopes to receive its first batch of students in 2011.

The plan, however, is still just in the beginning stage.

Critics have already pointed out shortfalls, such as tentative plans to admit only 20 academy graduates to become career diplomats, which would make the school yet another type of "exam."

"But the fact that they would go through a two-year training course makes a world of difference," argued Chung of the GNP.

He said the whole point of establishing the academy is not only to diversify diplomats, but also to offer better professional training.

The Foreign Ministry, however, seems loath to launch a major scale academy. Some have expressed hopes for the academy to wind up as a sort of wing to its Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security.

This way, it would simply have to expand the institute - a goal it had been pursuing anyway - to include some education facilities and not much more.

Despite the lack of effort, or change, the ministry could claim to the administration that it has upheld government wishes to expand and upgrade the diplomatic workforce.

The main reason for the reticence diplomats show in initiating the academy and ultimately opening the doors to a more diversified crowd is because they are afraid of the competition, critics say.

One of the big "perks" in joining the diplomatic workforce is overseas duties.

But there is now a limit on the number of overseas stints. This means competition is fiercer among diplomats to receive promotions and get sent abroad as ambassadors.



Change from within

The desire to undertake overseas posts at times tends to get the better of diplomats, who cherish honor more than officials of any other ministry or government department.

"The diplomatic service can aim at a higher level of sophistication and dedication only after they accept that their personal satisfaction must be set aside for bigger causes," said Rhee Sang-woo, former head of Hallym University who chairs the ministry`s new competitiveness committee.

The commitment to at least try and start the Diplomatic Academy is one sign, Rhee noted, of the dedication diplomats have toward national interests.

To embrace these and other challenges, experts say that the diplomatic service must fundamentally change from within by breeding a greater tolerance for diversity and recognizing the need to engage in a new diplomatic paradigm befitting the current times.

The first generation did its job; it is now up to a new generation of diplomats to build up on what their seniors achieved, Rhee said.

Trumping internal discrimination is seen at the top of "to-do" list for that new generation, since new blood is the only way the Foreign Ministry can expect to tackle the daunting future diplomatic tasks.

Despite the need, the ministry`s temporary workers are not in a favorable position.

There are currently more than 200 such employees who boast solid credentials.

They are in return promised job security and stability after they have served at the government for three years and assuming they pass a promotion exam.

But they are fundamentally barred from climbing to posts above a certain level.

Those who enter as temporary workers are usually given "foreign affairs and consul" positions and start from there, while those who pass the state exam are endowed with "foreign affairs and trade" status.

For those with the lower-class foreign affairs and consul jobs, it would take at least double the amount of time than those with foreign affairs and trade status officials to rise to higher positions such as director.

Even then, the temporary workers are rarely given opportunities to serve outside the country, which is after all, one of the bigger objectives for working for the diplomatic service.

Those close to the matter pointed out that there were no incentives for these workers to stay on.

The temporary employees consequently leave for better job opportunities.

"You need to give these people a vision. A sign that they would have a place to serve their country and fulfill their own personal career objectives if they set their minds to it. Without these changes, and we are seeing some improvement, Korea`s diplomatic service has no future," said one official close to the matter.

Attempts to open the new training academy and expand the workforce, in addition to raising the diplomatic budget is a desperately needed step in the right direction, she said.

(jemmie@heraldm.com)



By Kim Ji-hyun