Derogatory Remarks on President Roh Land Some Diplomats in Trouble

Shockwaves have begun to ripple out as the presidential office decided to take disciplinary action against foreign affairs and trade department (MOFAT) officials for the derogatory remarks they allegedly made on private occasions over President Roh Moo-hyun’s U.S. policy.

“Internal investigations found that several MOFAT officials made remarks that were too inappropriate to be tolerable on a few occasions,” a staffer at the presidential office of civil affairs said on January 12. He added, “We will inform the department of their wrongdoings so it can take personnel or disciplinary action against them.”

The presidential office found the following remarks have been exchanged, “It was true when Hong Sa-duck, the general secretary of the Grand National Party (GNP) said many of Roh supporters like Kim Jong-il, chairman of the National Defense Committee of North Korea,” and “The political level of young members of the National Security Council (NSC) is on par with the Taliban, and it is they who control President Roh at will.”

The civil affairs office, acting on detailed tips about what the remarks were about, by whom and where they were made, has investigated Wi Seong-rak, the chief of the North America department, Cho Hyun-dong, of the desk 3 of the department, and about 10 staffers of the desk 2 and 3. Some of the officials admitted they made the remarks.

The civil affairs office has also investigated how Kukmin Ilbo, a daily newspaper, ran a story on January 6 about the conflict between the NSC and the MOFAT. There have been allegations that the office did a rundown on the cell phone logs of the MOFAT tipster and the reporter who wrote the story. “We have never checked the logs,” said presidential spokesman Yoon Tai-young.

“The presidential office must not take issue with private remarks,” said the GNP and the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) said in chorus. The opposition parties said, “The committee on unification, foreign affair and trade of the National Assembly, will be convened to discuss the matter.”

“The reason why the Korea-U.S. alliance is cacophonous is due to President Roh’s bias toward the policy code of ‘intra-national cooperation,’ ” said Park Jin, speaking for the GNP. “Presidential attempts at threatening and ferreting out anyone who disobeys may happen only in a communist society forcing a defective code upon diplomats and.”

“The presidential office, which has been bragging about the post-authoritarian level-minded leadership, is overreacting to and criminalizing the private expression of critical opinions,” said MDP spokesman Kim Young-hwan said. “It will just stiffen the social mood.”

Jeong-Hun Kim Yeon-Wook Jung jnghn@donga.com jyw11@donga.com