The Yoon Chang-jung scandal, no matter how it may finally be settled with the ex-presidential press secretary recouping any little bit of his crumbled honor, will go down as the worst incident in the entire history of Korea’s “summit diplomacy.” Yet, in the embarrassing wake of the episode, we have to give some thoughts to the circumstances under which it happened and if there is anything in the Korean tradition of presidential diplomacy that needs to be changed. 

It is a pity that the members of the Blue House press corps who covered President Park Geun-hye on her first visit to the United States since her inauguration in February had to deal with the “misdemeanor sexual abuse” case rather than wrapping up and analyzing the outcomes of the greatly significant presidential tour. After all, the journalists should be ready for the thrills as well as frustrations of facing the unexpected.

This time again, the president was accompanied by large numbers of businesspeople and media representatives on her five-day U.S. tour. The 78-man press corps was relatively small compared to the sizes in the past which easily topped 120. Her itinerary, highlighted by summit talks with President Barack Obama and an address to a joint session of Congress, included meetings with the “representatives” of the Korean communities in New York, Washington and Los Angeles and a dinner with American businessmen.

She was following the pattern of presidential overseas tours started as early as the 1960s by her father, Park Chung-hee. As is well known, Gen. Park as the head of a military junta, had an uncomfortable meeting with John F. Kennedy in the White House. After he changed into civvies and was elected president, he began to take along a large entourage together with a battalion of press from the print and broadcasting media on his infrequent overseas trips.

Chun Doo-hwan, who succeeded Park following the 1979 assassination, liked to make foreign state visits. He wanted to show off a nation on a steady course of economic development, although under a strong-arm rule. He was invited to Washington by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 and 1985, made the first official visit to Tokyo by a Korean president in 1984, traveled through Europe in 1986 and had extensive tours in Southeast Asia and Africa. His 1983 visit to Rangoon met the tragedy of a North Korean bomb attack which killed 17 members of his entourage.

The pompous style of presidential overseas tour continued even after democratic rule set in with the Roh Tae-woo presidency in 1988. A large group of journalists traveled with the president in the chartered presidential jet, although the reports the mobile press corps dispatched to Seoul were uniform stories bylined “the Blue House Press Corps.” What was different from the past was that the employers of reporters now had to pay for their staff’s expenses.

During an overseas tour, the president was comfortably detached from the headaches of domestic politics while his diplomatic feats of important agreements and declarations with foreign leaders were splashed on the front pages of domestic press. The Blue House Press Corps organized a pool system to cover the president’s and the first lady’s various activities in foreign capitals and no separate articles by individual members were allowed. Any violation would meet sanctions back home.

Judging from the identical contents of reports on President Park Geun-hye’s U.S. visit in different newspapers last week, the same system seems to more or less remain effective today. From the moment when the president landed at Kennedy Airport in New York and throughout her stays in Washington and Los Angeles readers and TV viewers at home were fed the same stories and video footage at different media outlets, until we had the avalanche of “sexual abuse” reports from shortly before the president’s return home.

In the early 2000s when I was serving as head of the Korean Information Service (now Korean Overseas Culture and Information Service), I had the opportunity of observing the media portion of presidential diplomacy, particularly the operations of the accompanying Blue House Press Corps. My office was responsible for providing the necessary logistics for the traveling reporters in cooperation with the presidential press office in addition to the original task of publicity with the local press.

Readers may not believe it if I recall that during a presidential visit to the capital of a Southeast Asian country, my office was requested by some members of the press corps (who were spared from pool duty) to book them a round of golf at a renowned country club near the city. Such service was offered in addition to operating a “press center” where the reporters were dispatching their identical pooled reports to their home offices in Seoul.

At that time I wondered if the president believed that the size of the press corps and that of the businesspeople accompanying him on an overseas tour had any bearing on the prestige of his job and his nation. Now that the nation is globally recognized as one of the world’s major trading and industrial powers and a full-fledged democracy, don’t we need a more restrained presidential presence in a foreign capital to reap more substantial results from summit diplomacy, I still wonder.

The Blue House may be following the White House model, but it simply is a big waste of time and money as long as the large press corps churns out only stories based on regular briefings by the presidential press secretary and pooled stories of presidential activities. The presidential spokesperson is a rigorous job to collect materials of presidential addresses, agreements and conversations, sort them out in consultation with other aides and to release the important contents to the press. Yet, this can be no excuse for the press secretary to try to release stress with alcohol or the company of women.

Here I have a modest proposal to the Blue House: Cut the size of the press group accompanying the president on overseas trips in the future. A small number of print and broadcasting reporters may be chosen through lottery or on rotation basis. This will help the president pursue a fundamentally quieter, more business-oriented presidential diplomacy. The people’s right to know shall not be harmed; only the vanity of the master of the Blue House will be cured a little.

By Kim Myong-sik

Kim Myong-sik is a former editorial writer of The Korea Herald. ― Ed.