South Korea’s legislature will begin probes into former President Lee Myung-bak’s “resource diplomacy” initiative sometime early next year after the country’s two main parties on Wednesday agreed to set up an investigative committee.
But the probes are expected to be highly politicized, with the main opposition party saying the ex-president must be held accountable for allegedly wasting billions of won, and Lee supporters saying the investigation is a witch hunt based on a political deal between the main parties.
Lee’s massive resource diplomacy was aimed at reducing South Korea’s dependence on Middle Eastern oil by investing state money in foreign energy projects, but the forthcoming probe is focused on identifying why many of its investment decisions resulted in huge losses.
Suspicion has been floating that the probe into Lee is part of a vote-trading deal between the governing Saenuri Party and the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy.
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Former President Lee Myung-bak |
President Park Geun-hye and her Saenuri Party want to push through civil service pension reforms, a move that the opposition has fiercely resisted. The main opposition has demanded parliamentary probes into Lee, a move that the governing party has opposed.
On Monday, party leaders agreed to create two parliamentary committees: one to investigate the past administration’s energy investments and the other to continue talks over pension reforms.
Defenders of Lee and his resource diplomacy policy said the agreements confirmed their suspicions of a logrolling scheme.
Lee’s admirers charge the ex-president’s policy was well intended as South Korea relies on foreign sources for much of its energy. Up to 97 percent of the country’s energy is imported, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, a public entity. Lee supporters add that the public must wait longer for the investments to produce results.
The Saenuri Party has also been ambivalent about the investigations as some of its current members had participated in related negotiations.
Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan, who served as the Knowledge Economy Minister under Lee, has been one of those officials.
But political analysts said that Saenuri Party chair Rep. Kim Moo-sung agreed to the probes because reforming pensions for government employees was a key policy that President Park was determined to push through as soon as possible.
Reports said Kim will visit Lee sometime early next year “to seek Lee’s understandings.” Kim has reportedly denied the claim, saying a New Year’s visit was something “natural.”
The probe is set to begin sometime after Dec. 29, when the governing and opposition parties are expected to vote in a bill on creating the investigative committee.
The NPAD said the probes have come too late, and that it was necessary to hold past officials accountable for their decisions.
Some in the NPAD have accused Lee of spending at least 350 billion won ($3.1 billion) in foreign energy development deals, without producing returns.
They said that Lee signed 45 MOUs with foreign parties. Up to 35 have ended without producing any return, monetary or otherwise, NPAD Rep. Noh Young-min said.
Harvest Operations Corp., a Canadian energy firm for example, was purchased by the state-run Korea National Oil Corporation at 2 trillion won and sold for 200 billion won, the NPAD asserts.
“We will see if the resource diplomacy policy was carried out for the sake of our nation’s future, or if it was done for the sake of Lee and his cronies,” NPAD Rep. Hong Young-pyo said Thursday.
By Jeong Hunny (
hj257@heraldcorp.com)
