This article was originally posted on Jay Press and translated by OKN Correspondent.
President-elect Yoon Seok-youl has decided to send envoys only to the United States and the European Union (EU), excluding China, Russia, and Japan.
According to an official from Yoon’s camp on the 15th, Yoon confirmed that National Assemblyman Park Jin will be the head of a special envoy to the United States. Although they are the four powers along with the U.S. surrounding the Korean peninsula, he has decided not to send envoys to China, Japan, and Russia.
This official said, “The President-elect intends to provide practical policy-making cooperation, not a show-only mission,” adding, “Assemblyman Park is the head of the envoy and the policy cooperation team.”
Assemblyman Park, a former Foreign Ministry official, is serving his fourth term since being elected for the 16th National Assembly in 2002. He served as chairman of the National Assembly’s Parliamentary Diplomacy Forum, vice chairman of the Korea-U.S. Congressional Diplomacy Council, vice chairman of the International Democrat Union, and chairman of the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee.
Park visited the U.S. in August 2008 to attend the Korea-U.S. Congressional Diplomacy Council and spoke to U.S. President Joe Biden, who was then-chair of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
An official from Yoon’s camp added, “Several media reports are mentioning that Assembly members Kwon Yeong-se and Chung Jin-suk from the People Power Party were chosen as envoys to China and Japan, which is misinformation.”
Yoon decided not to send a special envoy to Russia in consideration of the invasion of Ukraine. Also, Yoon’s camp explained that there is no urgent need to send a special envoy to China and Japan as the president-elect, as there are many diplomatic issues with both China and Japan that require major coordination after the inauguration of the new government.
An official from Yoon’s camp said, “The EU shares the same values as we do. To play the role of a global central country in the future, we have decided to send a special envoy because we believe that cooperation in economic security, high-tech cooperation, and human rights issues are necessary.”
It is reported that they are considering someone outside of parliament to be the envoy to the EU. The dispatch of envoys is expected to take place in early or mid-April.
To read the original article in Korean, please click here.
