Mystery surrounds troubled envoy’s sooner-than-expected return
Pressure mounts for Lee Jong-sup’s resignation
Korean Ambassador to Australia Lee Jong-sup has temporarily returned home to attend a rare meeting of envoys set for Monday. However, with the government providing scant information about the meeting’s details such as the location and attendees, speculation is mounting that the event was hastily arranged to accommodate Lee’s return. Additionally, local defense firms are under pressure to prepare for unexpected visits by Lee and other envoys.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not shared the exact duration of the envoy’s stay, which could be prolonged depending on the anti-corruption agency’s ongoing investigation. Lee faces allegations of leveraging his position to affect the military’s probe into the death of a Marine during a search-and-rescue operation amid heavy rains last summer. Lee was defense minister at the time.
Lee arrived in Korea on Thursday morning, just 11 days after departing for Canberra, to participate in a meeting in Seoul of diplomatic mission chiefs related to defense industry cooperation.
The event, which is expected to be held for a few days from Monday, will bring together six envoys from Indonesia, Poland, Saudi Arabia, the United
Arab Emirates (UAE), and Qatar, alongside Lee. These countries are key partners with which Korea has been bolstering defense cooperation.
According to the foreign ministry, ambassadors will deliberate on export opportunities for local arms and policy support measures for domestic defense companies during the meeting jointly convened with the defense ministry and the trade ministry. Additionally, they will participate in on-site discussions with several companies.
Such a meeting, which brings together several diplomatic mission chiefs in Seoul to discuss the defense industry, is highly rare, if not unprecedented. Previously, similar meetings were conducted virtually.
The foreign ministry announced the upcoming meeting, Wednesday,
a day before Lee arrived in Seoul.
The ministry did not provide exact details regarding the scheduling of the meeting or when attendees were notified. Instead, it said, “It was determined based on comprehensive consideration of the schedules of officials at headquarters and the participating overseas missions.”
“We may be able to share more information about the meeting later. It will not be just one meeting but several, and attendance by the foreign or defense ministers will depend on the specific theme of each discussion,” a foreign ministry official told The Korea Times, Friday, when asked who will convene the meeting and where it will be held.
The official also mentioned that it is not unusual to refrain from disclosing Lee’s specific itinerary
in Seoul, citing previous practices where detailed schedules of an envoy were not provided.
Major defense firms seemed quite taken aback by the possibility of the envoys visiting to see their weapons systems next week, as they had not been notified beforehand. Visits by senior government officials are typically arranged days or weeks in advance.
“We just learned about the planned visit, and details are still under discussion. We are still unsure who is coming — whether it will involve all the envoys or only some of them — and on which day,” a defense company employee said, Friday, adding that it will provide necessary cooperation.
Meanwhile, the timing of Lee’s return suggests that the envoys’ gathering may not be the top priority of his stay. Instead, it appears to be aimed at quelling negative public sentiment surrounding his investigation.
His arrival came just four days after the ruling People Power Party’s (PPP) interim leader Han Donghoon called for his swift return to face further questioning by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), Sunday.
Several local media reports have suggested that Lee could stay here for weeks until the April 10 general elections, or a month until an annual envoys’ gathering in Seoul set to be held on April 22.
If his stay is prolonged, it may lead to disruptions in his envoy role and preparations for an upcoming diplomatic event. The so-called “two plus two” meeting between Korea and Australia, which gathers foreign and defense ministers from both sides, is likely to be held in Canberra in late April or early May.
The date of Lee’s departure for Australia has yet to be fixed, according to the foreign ministry.
Speculation over the impromptu envoys’ meeting arises as an unfavorable development for the PPP, which had hoped that Lee’s sooner-than-expected return would help alleviate the controversies surrounding the envoy.
Negative public sentiment has persisted since Lee’s appointment as ambassador on March 4, with critics likening his departure to Australia to “the fleeing of a major criminal suspect.” This issue has significantly contributed to the declining approval rating for President Yoon Suk Yeol and the ruling party.
Despite Lee’s return and his promise to cooperate with the investigative authorities, some anxious PPP members are calling for his resignation.
During a radio interview on Friday, Na Kyong-won, co-chair of the PPP’s election campaign committee, asked for a “more proactive response” from the envoy, apparently requesting him to step down.