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FM AMEMBASSY SEOUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 5298
INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 9845
RUEHMO/AMEMBASSY MOSCOW 7038
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 9923
RUEHUM/AMEMBASSY ULAANBAATAR 1009
RHMFISS/COMUSKOREA J5 SEOUL KOR
RHHMUNA/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RHMFISS/COMUSKOREA J2 SEOUL KOR
RHMFISS/COMUSKOREA SCJS SEOUL KOR

S E C R E T SEOUL 000102 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/18/2015 
TAGS: PREL PINR KS KN
SUBJECT: THE ROK'S NEW MINISTER OF UNIFICATION:  LEE 
JONG-SEOK MOVES TO CENTER STAGE 
 
REF: SEOUL 14 
 
Classified By: POL M/C Joseph Y. Yun.  Reasons 1.4 (b), (d). 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
¶1.  (S) Incoming Minister of Unification (and Chairman of the 
National Security Council Standing Committee) Lee Jong-seok 
is a left-leaning nationalist who supports the ROK playing a 
more active and independent role in the world, particularly 
on issues involving North Korea.  The Embassy has worked 
closely with Lee during the past two years in his position as 
Deputy Secretary General of the National Security Council, 
and we have found that he recognizes that the relationship 
with the United States is critical to the ROK's security and 
international influence.  Park Sun-won, one of Lee's closest 
aides at the NSC, reiterated, to POL M/C on January 5 that 
Lee remained firmly committed to maintaining the strength of 
the bilateral alliance with the United States; Park added 
that "time was running" out for the Roh Administration to 
make progress on the DPRK nuclear issue and that Lee would 
seek to improve coordination with the United States on the 
issue.  According to Park, Lee intends to undertake an active 
campaign of public appearances to garner increased support 
for the Roh Administration's foreign policy.  COMMENT:  Lee's 
promotion does not signal any policy change, as he was 
already the most influential foreign policy official in the 
Roh Administration.  Lee is unaccustomed to the limelight 
and, at 48, is twelve or more years younger than ministers 
such as Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon and Defense Minister 
Yoon Kwang-ung, whom he will be supervising on the NSC; it 
would not be surprising if these factors cause Lee to hit a 
few bumps in the road in his early months in his new 
position.  END COMMENT AND SUMMARY. 
 
FROM BEHIND THE CURTAIN TO A STARRING ROLE 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶2.  (C)  South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun on January 2 
nominated National Security Council Deputy Executive 
Secretary Lee Jong-seok to be the next Minister of 
 
SIPDIS 
Unification; Lee will also assume former Minister of 
Unification Chung Dong-young's position as Chairman of the 
National Security Council Standing Committee.  With this 
announcement, Lee moves from his position behind the scenes 
as director of ROK foreign policy into a center stage, 
starring role.  The National Assembly will hold hearings on 
Lee's nomination, but does not have the right to block the 
appointment. 
 
¶3.  (C) Lee has long been President Roh Moo-hyun's most 
important foreign policy adviser, more influential than 
either Chung or Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, and certainly 
more powerful than his nominal boss, outgoing National 
Security Advisor Kwon Chin-ho.  Although powerful, Lee has 
stayed strictly behind the scenes until now; he is almost 
never quoted in the media and we do not believe he had made a 
single speech since entering government (although he has 
occasionally appeared before the National Assembly). 
According to our Blue House contacts, Roh and Lee share the 
same world view, especially on North Korea.  Also sharing 
similar temperament, Roh has found Lee to be totally devoted 
to presidential goals and objectives. 
 
A LEFT-LEANING NATIONALIST . . . 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (C) Lee Jong-seok is a left-leaning nationalist.  He is 
committed to seeing South Korea play a more active, 
independent role in the world and is sensitive to perceived 
slights to his nation.  He can easily become emotional, for 
example, on the subject of Japan and its attitudes toward 
Korea.  Prior to entering government, Lee was a little-known 
academic whose work focused exclusively on North Korea and 
reunification.  He is passionately devoted to the Roh 
Administration's "Peace and Prosperity Policy" of promoting 
the slow, long-term reunification of the Korean Peninsula 
through an extensive economic assistance program to the DPRK. 
 He is regarded by many as wary of American influence and 
power and did not meet with an American official for the 
first six months he was in office.  In extensive interactions 
over the past two years on a wide array of issues, however, 
we have found Lee to be a pragmatic interlocutor who fully 
 
understands that the American alliance is key to his 
country's foreign policy.  He frequently describes South 
Korea as an outstanding example of the "American model" for 
national development. 
 
. . . WHO VALUES THE AMERICAN ALLIANCE 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶5.  (C) During a January 5 meeting with POL M/C, Park 
Sun-won, Senior Director for Strategy Planning at the NSC and 
one of Lee's closest advisors, stressed that Lee wanted to 
work closely with the United States.  Park said Lee had 
specifically asked him to emphasize to the Embassy that Lee 
was pro-American and wanted to promote the mutual national 
interests of the ROK and United States.  During the past two 
years, the United States and ROK had resolved or largely 
resolved a number of difficult bilateral issues, including 
the relocation of USFK, strategic flexibility, and the 
relocation of our Embassy.  Park stressed that many of the 
difficulties in these negotiations had been the result of ROK 
budget issues, rather than a lack of commitment to the 
alliance on the part of the Roh Administration.  Now that 
these were behind us, the bilateral relationship was poised 
to enter a new era of good feelings.  Park added that Lee 
recognized that "the United States is the only partner of the 
ROK that goes on forever" and that the relationship with 
Washington was a critical hedge against the rise of China. 
 
LEE TO CAMPAIGN FOR ROH ADMINISTRATION FOREIGN POLICY 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
¶6.  (C) As Minister of Unification, said Park, Lee Jong-seok 
intended to take a much more public role than he had in the 
past, and would be making speeches, publishing op-ed pieces 
and appearing on television news shows.  In his role as 
Chairman of the NSC Standing Committee, Lee would 
energetically promote the Roh Administration's entire foreign 
policy, not merely its policy of engagement with the DPRK. 
 
NORTH KOREA POLICY 
------------------ 
 
¶7.  (C) The number one foreign policy objective of the Roh 
Administration, said Park, was to make progress on the DPRK 
nuclear issue, and Lee would be looking for ways to enhance 
policy coordination with the United States on North Korean 
matters.  Speaking with unusual candor, Park pointed out that 
the Roh Administration was entering its fourth year and that 
time was running out.  It was important that the United 
States and the ROK have "real policy coordination from A to 
Z," including on denuclearization and the transformation of 
North Korea.  For example, said Park, the ROK accepted that 
the United States had the right to take measures against 
North Korean counterfeiting of American currency, but wanted 
those measures to be coordinated with the Six Party Talks. 
 
¶8.  (C) Park said that another of Lee's priorities would be 
the development of inter-Korean relations, in particular the 
next round of ministerial talks in late March.  Park claimed 
that Lee would be a much tougher interlocutor for the North 
Koreans than Chung Dong-young had been.  Whereas Chung had 
been searching for results that would bolster his upcoming 
campaign for President, Lee would be working toward the 
specific goals of denuclearization of North Korea and peace 
on the Peninsula.  Lee had no broader ambitions, was 
intensely loyal to President Roh, and would focus solely on 
advancing Roh's foreign policy agenda.  More broadly, Lee 
would not repeat Chung's "mistakes," especially Chung's need 
to see his own name in every newspaper. 
 
BIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION 
---------------------- 
 
¶9.  (U)  Lee Jong-seok has been Deputy Secretary General of 
the ROK National Security Council since March, 2003.  Prior 
to that, he had been a Senior Researcher at the prestigious 
Sejong Institute from 1994.  Lee also served as a member of 
the Ministry of Unification Policy Advisory Committee from 
1996-2002 and as a member of Presidential Advisory 
Committee's Subcommittee on Foreign Relations and Security 
from 2001-2003.  He obtained his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D from 
Sungkyunkwan University in 1984, 1989 and 1993, respectively. 
 He was born on May 11, 1958 in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province. 
 
VERSHBOW