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Foreign Minister’s Resignation May Cause Diplomatic Problems
 
By Kim Sun-woo, Tribune Reporter
 
 
▲ Yu Myung-hwan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, decided to resign. Photo by Naver
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Yu Myung-hwan, has decided to resign after accusations of nepotism, his ministry’s hiring of his daughter on September 4th. Yu’s resignation came shortly after President Lee Myung-bak’s order to investigate the recruiting process. In the early days of Yu’s scandal, most of the Korean press criticized Yu for giving employment privileges to his daughter. Later, however, they reported on possible diplomatic problems like the nation’s preparations for the upcoming United Nations General Assembly and the G20 summit in Seoul in November. Compared with the coverage by the domestic press, it will be interesting to know how the foreign press reported the incident right after the resignation of the Foreign Minister.
On September 5th, The Wall Street Journal, an English-language international daily newspaper, reported that in spite of Mr. Yu’s public apology and his cancelation of his daughter’s employment, he had still received a lot of public criticism. Mr. Yu’s resignation came at an important moment when the G20 Seoul summit meeting was just around the corner and amid diplomatic efforts by China and North Korea to restart stalled talks over North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs. After Mr. Yu’s resignation, it predicted, President Lee would have trouble finding a new Foreign Minister. This articlepointed out that President Lee should find a new Foreign Minister at the earliest possible time to avoid a possible diplomatic vacuum.
On September 4th, the Bangkok Post, an English-language daily newspaper in Thailand, reported Mr. Yu denied any undue favor to his daughter throughout the hiring process. Commenting on South Korea’s low youth unemployment rate, it revealed that the public was outraged and attacked the ministry’s homepage with postings demanding Yu’s resignation. The newspaper also criticized the hiring process of government employment for delaying the application deadline for a particular applicant: Mr. Yu’s daughter.
The Straits Times, a Singapore’s English-language daily newspaper, pointed out on September 5th, that Yu’s incident came at a critical moment of South Korea’s dilemma with the Cheonan warship crisis with North Korea. It also reported that President Lee expressed regret at Mr. Yu’s case and quoted that the behavior was not  acceptable, because the case was going to make his drive for a “fair society” laughable to the general public. The press highlighted the importance of the President’s responsibility of nominations.
According to the coverage of several foreign presses, Mr. Yu’s resignation came in a critical moment for South Korea as it is preparing to host the G20 summit in November and searching for a solution to end North Korea’s nuclear problem. The foreign presses, in other words, focused on the impact of Yu’s resignation upon the diplomatic problems caused by the incident. From the eyes of this reporter, however, the diplomatic dilemma caused by the resignation of the current foreign minister can be softened by the appointment of a new foreign minister with a good reputation. It is, therefore, President Lee who has to find the best person to substitute the outgoing Yu and nominate the new minister as soon as possible.
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