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Cheong Wa Dae has launched a focused investigation into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade¡¯s America specialists due to the discord that has continued between the National Security Council (NSC) and the ministry officials who deal directly with the United States since the inauguration of the current government.
The NSC's strategic planning office has seen the arrival of a large number people calling for an approach to diplomacy towards the United States that is quite different from Korea's stance in previous governments, and this has caused discord at various junctures with the officials who have long been responsible for dealing with the Americans. Unseen battle lines were drawn, as each side hurled insults in the course of discussing issues such as the traffic death of two middle school girls involving a U.S. armored vehicle, the dispatch of additional troops to Iraq, and the moving of the U.S. military base from Yongsan.
The America hands at the ministry have all worked at least three years at the Korean Embassy in Washington D.C., and say Korea should not confront the Bush Administration's diplomacy of strength. The NSC, however, has been calling for "independent" or "sovereign" diplomacy, saying that much about Korea's relationship with the U.S. is humiliating.
The press has called it a confrontation between two schools of thought, the "alliance faction" and the "independence faction." In the course of the conflict, the America hands have been calling for prudence in negotiations with the United States, and said so both privately and publicly. As the details of their comments became known, Cheong Wa Dae and the NSC decided to send them a warning.
Some foreign ministry employees have been saying privately that the government has been taking an "inappropriate" position on the relocation of the U.S. military away from Yongsan, and alleging the relocation issue should be approached with care, since relocating the United States Forces Korea headquarters all at one time would cause uncertainty in the country's sense of security.
Last week, Cheong Wa Dae received an anonymous note, saying that foreign minister Yoon Young-kwan, the vice foreign minister, and other high level ministry officials are criticizing President Roh Moo-hyun's policies towards the United States. The note is said to have specified the time and place of the criticisms.
(Yi Ha-won, may2@chosun.com )
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