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The Associated Press reported Thursday that its affiliate AP Television News had obtained a videotape of Kim Sun-il on June 3 and requested confirmation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, only for the ministry to respond that it was unaware of any Koreans missing in Iraq. If the report is confirmed as true, criticism against not only the foreign minister but also the government at large are expected to be raised. In particular, if the government, which failed to identify the fact even 21 days after Kim had been kidnapped, neglected a media agency¡¯s request for fact finding, it will not avoid public reproach.
The Foreign Ministry is denying the AP¡¯s claim, saying that it has not confirmed whether AP made a phone call to the ministry and asking the media agency to reveal exactly what questions it gave to whom. Although AP called the ministry to affirm facts, if an official at the ministry neglected the AP¡¯s identification request, the Foreign Ministry failed to fulfill its basic responsibility to protect Korean people living in Iraq where a war is being waged. June 3 was only three days after Kim was abducted. If the Foreign Ministry had been more careful and ordered the Korean embassy to identify the fact, Kim Sun-il¡¯s life could have been saved. Therefore, one must find out who should be held responsible for the neglect.
It the AP¡¯s report is true, it is natural to point out that the ministry is systematically covering up that an official of the ministry received a call from the AP. And it may deal a blow to the morality of the government. The possibility is raised that the official who got the call is keeping the fact a secret under frightful pressure. Since the AP¡¯s report came out on Thursday morning, the Foreign Ministry has been intensively questioning its related employees regarding who ever received a call from AP. The ministry is decidedly investigating the phone call records of related departments to find out the truth.
Even if AP did not clearly ask the ministry, the point of the questions was about a possible missing person among Korean people in Iraq. Therefore, the ministry should have ordered the Korean embassy in Baghdad to investigate whether there was a missing Korean. At that time, only 71 Koreans including diplomats were in Iraq. Furthermore, in Iraq, kidnapping of foreigners frequently occur. Accordingly, the ministry should have checked into even the slightest of hints it had obtained one.
The Foreign Ministry said that it has asked Korean people in Iraq not to go outside and to be careful about their safety several times by email since the killing of Kim Sun-il. And the Korean Embassy in Iraq has frequently checked the communication network of Korean residents and asked them to be mindful of their safety. However, these requests have been made mainly to leaders of Korean resident organizations. Some point out that if the ministry and embassy had the firm will to protect Korean people in a war-stricken country, they should have directly looked into the safety of each individual.
(Kim In-gu, ginko@chosun.com )
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