Roh, answering a question about the recent incident, said that if this sort of thing continues, the smooth functioning of foreign policy will be hindered. In order for foreign policy to run smoothly, he said, he plans to take personnel measures so that obstacles to the carrying out of foreign policy are removed.

Yoon Young-kwan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, discusses with other ministers the issue of inflammatory remarks made by the ministry’s officials, before this week’s cabinet meeting at Cheong Wa Dae on Tuesday morning.

In accordance with this, one cannot exclude the possibility of shakeups affecting Cho Hyun-dong, a North American division director, Wi Sung-rak, the general-director of the North American Affairs Bureau, and other high officials. The only thing that’s certain is that since Roh said there are no plans for an immediate reshuffling of his cabinet, Foreign Minister Yoon Young-kwan will likely keep his job.

Discussing policy toward the United States, the President said that from time to time, there were leaks of information aiming to change his foreign policy, and after policies had been decided, there were leaks designed to influence the details of those policies. He called attention to this several times, he said, and requested that officials follow his directions, but a few people objected and went as far as making insulting remarks. The information leaks Roh spoke of appear to refer to the prior reports in the media of the government’s position on the six-party talks, Iraq, the Yongsan Garrison move, and other issues. For the President to say this in a room where even foreign correspondents were sitting leads some observers to predict that full-scale changes in the system by which American policy is reached will take place.

In a regularly scheduled briefing in front of local and foreign reporters, Foreign Minister Yoon Young-kwan accepted responsibility and apologized for causing many citizens distress over the inappropriate and widely broadcast remarks by certain ministry officials and the subsequent investigations. He said that the his ministry’s mission was to serve the citizens by executing the President’s policy lines, and after receiving the results of investigations, those officials responsible for the inappropriate remarks and leaks would be dealt with in accordance with internal regulations and after taking into account a number of situations and the President’s wishes. Concerning who would be punished, Yoon said that he had yet to receive the investigation results from the civil affairs bureau, and only after seeing those results can he judge. (Lee Ha-weon, may2@chosun.com )