Korean Diplomats Searching for Accommodation: A Glimpse into Their Daily Lives

“I was very surprised to see Seung Wook-sang’s appointment as ambassador to the U.S. Aren’t you the person who, without question, only insisted on a hard line against Japan when Korea-Japan relations were collapsing helplessly during the Moon Jae-in administration?”

This was said by a Korean expert from a leading Japanese media outlet whom I met at a restaurant near the company in August of last year. He, who has always been full of affection for Korea, gave a harsh evaluation of Ambassador Kang Kyung-wha, who had just been appointed as ambassador to the United States, saying, “I am so worried.” At the same time, he mentioned Japanese Ambassador to the United States Shigeo Yamada, who is active in the United States. Who is Yamada? As one of the most prominent American experts in the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he coordinated U.S.-Japan relations as a deliberation officer at the National Security Bureau of the Japanese Prime Minister’s Office during Trump’s first term. He took office as ambassador to the United States at the end of 2023, and after the launch of Trump’s second term, he roamed the streets of Washington and led tariff negotiations. In Japan, there was an analysis that “Economic Revitalization Minister Ryosei Akazawa sat in front of Trump at the last moment, but in reality, Yamada prepared the entire table and Akazawa only boarded the plane to Washington.” The words of a Japanese journalist who contrasted Yamada with Ambassador Kang made me think, “Isn’t that too much to worry about (Ambassador Kang) even though he hasn’t even taken office yet?”

However, I came to a situation where I had to recall a conversation from last summer that I just wanted to have. On the 26th of last month (local time), President Trump said he would increase the 15% reciprocal tariff agreed with Korea to 25%. The Korean government said it was caught off guard, but in fact there were several prior warnings. These include a letter from the U.S. Embassy in Korea expressing concerns about discrimination against U.S. digital companies, the Coupang incident mentioned in the meeting between Prime Minister Kim Min-seok and Vice President JD Vance in Washington, and the Pastor Son Hyun-bo case. Common sense suggests that there were people within the U.S. government who could have sensed the unusual atmosphere around the president in advance. However, it appears that there are no clues that our embassy in the United States has figured out in advance. It is said that the first reaction of the embassy was shock and screams, saying, “Trump moved the goalpost during the game.”

The ripples are not subsiding. The confession of the head of the Blue House Security Office that “tariff negotiations have been going on for four months and is shaking up the security agreement” is unusual. Coincidentally, on the day that Korea was notified of the tariff increase, Trump sent a message saying, “The future of the US-Japan alliance will be dazzling.” Two days before the Japanese general election, he expressed his full support for Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. The dramatic intersection between the wide-ranging U.S.-Japanese relationship and the crisis-ridden Korea-U.S. relationship is subtle.

The embassy and government in the U.S. will also have something to say. You may feel aggrieved as to how you can predict the reckless Trump. It may be difficult to hold an ambassador who has only been officially appointed for 4 months responsible for this information gap and warning failure. However, the failure to even check the important changes in the atmosphere within the U.S. government is not something to be ignored. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs spends a lot of taxpayer money to dispatch ambassadors to do such work. The excuse, “We didn’t know about it, but it wasn’t a diplomatic failure because there wasn’t enough communication within the U.S. government,” sounds like an actual statement that “we were wrong.”

The government must assess whether the embassy in the United States is the problem or whether there is a hole in the country’s diplomatic capabilities. We must also take this opportunity to examine whether the forced replacement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is repeated every time there is a change of government, is harmful. The push out of people who held key positions in the previous administration is still ongoing, eight months after the new administration was launched. Some point out that the conflict and sharing between allies and independent factions is narrowing the pool of diplomat talent. Regardless of faction or ideology, we must form the most elite team for the national interest. I hope the rumors that ace diplomats who lost their positions are moving from building to building because they can’t find a place to work are just ‘rumors.’

Japan is different. Even if the regime changes and the prime minister changes, the status of professional diplomats who work for the country remains strong. For reference, even when Japan’s Democratic Party succeeded in its first post-war regime change in 2009, the ambassador to the United States was not changed. Conversely, the same was true when the Liberal Democratic Party regained power in late 2012.