Roh Backs Minister’s Criticism of U.S.

President Roh Moo-hyun strongly defended Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok’s comment, “The U.S. has made the biggest failure regarding the missile launch,” on July 25, stirring up a fierce controversy.

“Is a Korean Minister not allowed to say ‘I believe the U.S. has failed in this policy?” asked the President during the Cabinet council meeting at Cheong Wa Dae yesterday. “Do Korean ministers who say that the U.S. has failed have to be rebuked by the National Assembly?”

Minister Lee came under heavy fire from both government and opposition party lawmakers at the National Assembly’s Unification, Foreign Affairs, and Trade Committee meeting on July 24 for the remarks he made on SBS TV the previous day that the U.S. has made the biggest failure [in relation to North Korea’s missile launch].

President Roh told the Cabinet meeting, “Ministers should prepare themselves to say [in reply to the lawmakers], ‘Then do you mean to say we should strangle North Korea? Do you think we should strangle North Korea now?’ or ‘Do you believe South Korea should never say anything about mistakes made by the U.S.?’”

His comments are seen to be a display of his discontent with Washington, which is stepping up the pressure on North Korea since the missile launch, expressed in the form of defending Minister Lee.

However, the President’s remarks have brought criticism that they are inappropriate and only serve to worsen South Korea’s coordination with the U.S. in responding to the missile tests.

President Roh had also raised conjecture by remaining silent on the North Korean missile launch for six days after the incident, during which time the administration officials censured Japan’s response to the missiles as “making a big fuss,” drawing an outcry of protest from Tokyo officials.

At a Cheong Wa Dae dinner with the Uri Party leadership on July 11, six days after the missile tests, he criticized Japan’s argument for a preemptive attack against North Korea as “a situation where we cannot back off, even if we wanted to” and also the American financial sanctions on North Korea as being “punish first, explain later,” leading to concerns that his remarks were detrimental to Korea-U.S. cooperation.

President Roh also displayed anxieties over the attitudes of Washington and Tokyo at the July 19 national security ministerial meeting, stating, “Creating unnecessary tension and confrontation on the part of some is not helping to solve the issue.”

“Words from the president and from a minister carry weight that is as different as the earth and the sky,” said a foreign affairs source who requested to remain anonymous. “The president defending the Minister’s diplomatically inappropriate comments will undermine the Korea-U.S. alliance and destabilize Korea’s position in Northeast Asia.”

Legislators from both ruling and opposition parties disapproved of the president’s remarks as being “inappropriate.”

“It is natural that the National Assembly should be concerned and point out the mistake the Unification Minister has made in his provocative comment that a certain country’s policy has failed, when the Korean peninsula is in such tension at the moment,” said Jeong Jang-sun, a Uri party lawmaker on the Emergency Countermeasure Committee, adding that the president’s defense of Minister Lee “was unsuitable at this sensitive time.”

Kim Hyung-o, floor leader of the Grand National Party (GNP), condemned the president’s remarks as being “truly deplorable, as childish as elementary school kids fighting on the street,” and argued, “President Roh must make an apology to the public.”

“It’s an obstinate remark typical of President Roh. He should know what the job of the National Assembly is,” the Democratic Party (DP) spokesperson Lee Sang-yul pointed out. The Democratic Labor Party (DLP) spokesperson Park Yong-jin also said, “Such a naïve and direct comment on national security policy regarding the U.S. shows a lack of thought for peace on the Korean peninsula.”

Yeon-Wook Jung jyw11@donga.com