This is the fourth and last in the series of articles evaluating the Lee Myung-bak administration’s foreign policy. ― Ed.


From a sex scandal to a stock-rigging allegation, corruption and indiscipline among some diplomats have tainted the nation’s foreign service despite the Lee Myung-bak administration’s repeated pledges to clean up officialdom.

Experts said that the next president should pay more attention to stamping out irregularities in government bodies and shoring up public trust, based on which he or she can carry out a more transparent, trustable and effective foreign policy.

A deep-rooted culture of elitism and exclusiveness among diplomats makes them more vulnerable to the risks of irregularities and laxity, they said.

“(Diplomats) appear to lack the awareness of their responsibility to serve the people. Elitism in the ministry seems deeper than any other government body,” said Yoon Pyung-jung, a political philosophy professor at Hanshin University.

“There should be stricter discipline, scrutinizing systems with civil society involved in the process of looking for any signs of corruption. The leader, whoever is elected, should lead a strong anti-corruption drive from the very beginning of his or her term.”

Lee Choon-kun, security expert at the Korea Economic Research Institute, said although the moral standards of diplomats do not directly hamper their overseas missions, “clear punishment” against any corruption should be meted out.

“Cases involving diplomats are more likely to be accentuated. The government picks diplomats through a tough exam that looks into how much and how hard they have studied, not their overall integrity, and that is the reality,” he said.

“From a purely academic standpoint, given that international politics is a realm in which each state seeks national interests, moral issues would not that seriously hamper a country’s diplomacy as seen in the case of Bill Clinton.”

In 2010, the daughter of then Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan was found to have been granted undue favors in landing a job at the ministry. As public criticism mounted over what critics called nepotism, he offered to resign.

“I feel sorry that I overlooked the possibility that a child being hired at an organization where her father is at the helm could spark such allegations,” he told a press conference then.

A government audit later concluded the process of hiring Yu’s daughter “seriously hurt fairness and transparency.” The investigation had expanded into the possibility of children of other senior ministry officials getting preferential treatment.

The sex-for-favors allegations involving several diplomats at a South Korean mission in Shanghai, China, sent shockwaves across the nation in early 2011. The high-profile scandal seriously eroded public trust in public servants’ ethical standards.

The diplomats in question were speculated to have had “inappropriate relationships” with Deng Xinming, a Chinese woman who allegedly obtained confidential data such as the mission’s visa records and mobile phone numbers of senior officials and politicians from them.

The scandal led to speculation of espionage.

But investigators later conclude that it was not a spy case, saying that it was caused “by serious indiscipline of officials at overseas missions, which led to leakage of some state information, illegal visa issuances and inappropriate relationships.”

The ministry was rocked again early this year by the allegations of stock-manipulation and insider-trading, which involved several senior government officials including the senior official in charge of energy and resource diplomacy.

Kim Eun-seok, the disgraced diplomat, was suspected of helping boost the stock price of C&K Mining, a local resource development firm, through a government press release in 2010 on its winning the rights to develop a diamond mine in Cameroon.

Kim’s relatives were also alleged to have gained profits from their purchase of stocks at the firm. Several other government officials were also suspected to have been involved in the case.

In August this year, Korean diplomats in China came under fire once again for having a golf outing on the country’s Liberation Day. Half of the embassy staff participated in the event.

The public was frustrated not because of the outing, but because it came at a time of heightened tension over territorial rows in East Asia including South Korea. At the time, Jang Song-thaek, the powerful uncle and guardian of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, was also in China to discuss economic aid and cooperation.

By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)