Former Minister of Defense Lee Jong-seop. (Photo by Kim Chang-gil) The special prosecutor team led by Lee Myung-hyun, investigating the controversy over the appointment of former Minister of Defense Lee Jong-seop as ambassador to Australia as an alleged escape tactic, is speeding up its investigation by summoning officials from the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who were involved in the vetting process for Lee’s ambassadorial appointment. It has been found that the personnel verification process for Lee, which was conducted at the level of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was carried out over just four days. The special prosecutor team has secured statements from the review committee members indicating that the review was conducted merely as a formality.
On the 13th, according to the Kyunghyang Shinmun, the human resources verification process by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding Lee’s appointment as ambassador to Australia began on January 11th last year and concluded on January 16th. This means it was completed in just about four weekdays. According to the office of Kim Young-bae, a Democratic Party lawmaker, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs requested the submission of materials for the ambassadorial appointment from Lee’s side on January 11th last year. Subsequently, the Qualification Assessment Committee for Post Holders in Diplomatic Missions issued an approval for Lee’s eligibility as ambassador by obtaining handwritten signatures from all committee members five days later, on January 16th.
Some members of the review committee acknowledged during the special prosecutor’s investigation that the review process at that time was merely a “formal procedure.” The appointment of ambassadors is essentially decided by upper echelons such as the Presidential Office, and the personnel vetting process conducted at the level of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including the Qualification Assessment Committee, is merely formal. It was found that no separate meetings had been held for the review at that time.
The personnel verification by the Presidential Office and the Ministry of Justice was concluded just before the personnel verification by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The special prosecutor team believes that the personnel vetting by the Presidential Office regarding Lee began around December 8th, 2023, and was concluded on January 10th, before the Ministry of Foreign Affairs began its verification.
Since officials from the ministries of foreign affairs and justice stated during the investigation that the verification process seemed rushed, the special prosecutor team believes that the Presidential Office’s influence played a role in Lee’s appointment process. Special prosecutor Jeong Min-young said in a regular briefing that the personnel verification process appeared to be conducted unusually hastily. The team is calling the committee members who attended the Qualification Assessment Committee to investigate the circumstances and content of the meetings during the personnel verification process by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The special prosecutor team considers the explanation provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs last year regarding the appointment controversy of Lee as ambassador to Australia to be inappropriate. At that time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs explained that the ambassadorial position needed a change because the former Ambassador Kim’s retirement age would be December 2023. Article 27 of the Foreign Service Act specifies the retirement age for foreign service officers as 60 years. However, it is also stipulated that individuals holding certain positions prescribed by Presidential Decree can work beyond the retirement age.
The joint hosting of the major defense cooperation envoy meeting in March last year by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of National Defense, and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy is also under investigation by the special prosecutor team. The team is questioning Kwon Mo, the Director-General of Global Multilateral Diplomacy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to understand the background of the meeting’s organization. Lee was appointed as ambassador to Australia on March 4th last year and left the country on March 10th. However, due to the so-called “Run Jong-seop” controversy, he returned to Korea just 11 days into his appointment to attend the meeting. Suspicions were raised that this meeting was hastily arranged to justify Lee’s voluntary return.