GNP LAWMAKER PARK JIN ON LEE MYUNG-BAK FOREIGN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SEOUL 003540 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/10/2014 TAGS: KN KS PGOV PREL PINR SUBJECT: GNP LAWMAKER PARK JIN ON LEE MYUNG-BAK FOREIGN POLICY TEAM(S) Classified By: POL Joseph Y. Yun. Reasons 1.4 (b,d). ¶1. (C) Summary: In a December 14 meeting with POL M/C and POL Internal Chief, Grand National Party (GNP) lawmaker Park Jin explained that no one in the Lee Myung-bak campaign team was publicly planning for the transition despite the GNP candidate's commanding lead in all polls. However, he allowed, private discussions were ongoing to prepare for a victory in the December 19 election. Park, who heads the International Relations unit in the Lee campaign team, said that there were many foreign policy advisors jockeying for candidate Lee's ear and he was trying to keep the teams working together and develop a single, comprehensive policy strategy for the next administration. There were three different teams all headed by key players with disparate ideas which makes his job a challenge. While Park stressed he had no clear idea who would take which job either in the transition team or in a Lee administration, his insights provided a good look at the next president's key foreign policy advisors. End Summary -------------- The Teams -------------- ¶2. (C) Park Jin, a prominent second-term lawmaker representing the central Seoul district of Jongro, told poloffs on December 14 that, just as in any political campaign team in Korea, there were too many people who were angling for top billing. Because Lee Myung-bak now led all challengers by almost 30 percentage points in all polls, there were many who have joined the fray. In the foreign policy arena the camp is particularly crowded. There were several teams of advisors, he explained. One of the foreign policy teams was headed by former Foreign Minister Yoo Chong-ha, who is the Co-Chairman of the Campaign Committee for Foreign Affairs and National Security. Another was headed by former Ambassadors Park Dae-won and Kwon Jong-rak, and a third was made up of professors. There were many professors advising on foreign policy and the academic team was further divided into several groups, Park said. One team of professors was headed by Korea University Professor Hyun In-taek and one by Yonsei University Professor Kim Woosang. Also there were the two Nams -- Nam Sung-wook and Nam Ju-hong who advised candidate Lee on North Korea issues. ¶3. (C) Nam Sung-wook and Kim Woosang had the longest personal relationship with candidate Lee dating back several years and Hyun In-taek had only been working for Lee since early 2007. Kim Tae-hyo also played a prominent role. He noted that Kim, of Sungkyunkwan University, had originally worked with Kim Woosang's team but recently switched to Hyun's team. Most of the academics were in their late 40s or early 50s and none had any practical experience in government. -------------- Kwak, Team Captain -------------- ¶4. (C) All the teams received instructions from Professor Kwak Seung-joon, an economics professor at Korea University, who plays an overall policy coordinating role and is very close to the candidate, Park said. Kwak would call professors Kim and Hyun and tell them there would be a "seminar" or policy pow-wow and Kim and Hyun would assemble their teams to discuss a particular policy topic. Park said that Lee liked to hear different ideas and pit different teams against each other for primacy in the policy formulation process. -------------- Transition Style -------------- ¶5. (C) In Korea, Park said, Foreign policy transition teams are generally made up in one of two ways. Either the team is made up mostly of lawmakers or mostly of professors and outside experts. Roh Moo-hyun's foreign policy transition team was headed by Seoul National University professor Yoon Young-kwan, who became Roh's first Foreign Minister. Park speculated that Lee's foreign policy transition team would be led mostly by non-lawmakers. Also, he noted that anyone who hoped to be Foreign Minister would not take part in the transition and lawmakers who hoped to run again in the April elections would have a hard time campaigning while playing a significant role in the transition. He also speculated that the National Security Advisor position would likely be filled with one of the academics in Lee's team. -------------- Visit to Washington -------------- ¶6. (C) Park said that there would be a high-level visit by senior Lee Myung-bak advisors in January to assure the U.S. that Lee was committed to improving ties between the two countries. Park boasted that in November, candidate Lee told Park directly that improving U.S.-ROK ties would be the most important task for the foreign policy team. -------------- Foreign Minister Park? -------------- ¶7. (C) When asked if he would consider the top job in the foreign ministry if it were offered, Park said that in his heart, being foreign minister was his ultimate goal but he knew he should instead work on securing a third term in the Assembly. If he did this, he would aim for the chairmanship of the Foreign Affairs, Unification and Trade committee, one of the top spots in the Assembly. Park, who passed the foreign service exam and worked briefly in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MOFAT) before turning to academia and then politics, said that he had discussed the job with candidate Lee and had not gotten any clear sign whether he would be a top candidate for the job. -------------- The Road Ahead -------------- ¶8. (C) With the April National Assembly elections coming up just 45 days after the inauguration, the transition would be very busy. In addition to holding hearings for the Prime Minister-designate and all the major cabinet positions in February, the nomination process for the National Assembly race in April would take place in January. Therefore, in addition to the normal chores of setting up a new administration, it would be a very busy time for the president-elect and his team. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶9. (C) Park Jin is an ambitious and able politician, as he occasionally reminds his interlocutors. No one denies that he is talented and it is clear he understands foreign policy. Since there are not many with his background in the Lee Myung-bak camp, he still has a chance to take the helm of MOFAT. In the highly competitive Lee camp, Park, like the others, is scrambling to prove his mettle. However, despite his qualifications, his naked ambition has kept him, thus far, from top spots in the Lee campaign and could hold him back in the next administration. VERSHBOW