S. Korean Diplomat Resigns; Ties With U.S. May Be at Risk

South Korean Foreign Minister Yoon Young Kwan resigned today in an internal political dispute that could foreshadow more difficult relations between the United States and South Korea.

A former academic, Yoon took responsibility for failing to control several career diplomats who had made comments criticizing South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun and some of his aides as being too left-wing.

Sources close to the government said that there had been numerous spats within the foreign policy establishment over issues ranging from how to handle North Korea to the dispatch of South Korean troops to Iraq and the relocation of U.S. troops out of Seoul.

“This is a domestic political conflict, but policy toward the United States is the grounds over which it has been fought,” said Scott Snyder, Seoul representative of the nonprofit Asia Foundation. “Depending on who is appointed, it could have implications for how the relationship with the United States is handled in the future.”

Jeong Chan Yong, a presidential aide, said today that Yoon’s resignation was accepted because there had been “confusion and cacophony in the government’s foreign policy.”

“Some Foreign Ministry officials remain within the boundary of past dependency-oriented diplomacy and don’t have a full understanding of the basic spirit of the government’s self-reliant foreign policy,” Jeong said.

A former professor of diplomacy at Seoul National University, Yoon was plucked out of academia last year by newly installed President Roh as part of his campaign to bring fresh faces and outsiders into the government.

As the top South Korean diplomat, Yoon helped to smooth over tensions that had arisen in the 50-year-old alliance with the United States because of Roh’s criticism of the Bush administration’s hard-line stances toward North Korea and Iraq.

Despite predictions that the alliance would unravel, South Korea has stood closely with the United States in demanding that North Korea give up its nuclear weapons program and has offered to send 3,000 troops to aid the U.S. occupation in Iraq.

But behind the scenes, disputes have continued raging within foreign policy circles.

It was an open secret that some Foreign Ministry officials disparaged Roh’s foreign policy advisors, particularly Deputy National Security Advisor Lee Jong Seok, as “the Taliban” for their purportedly anti-American views.

“Although we asked them repeatedly to follow our policy line, they continued to express their opposition [to our policies] with insulting language,” Roh said in a speech Wednesday, alluding to changes to come in the Foreign Ministry.