Blue House cut Foreign Ministry out of Thaad talks: Diplomatic sources

Diplomatic sources say former President Moon Jae-in's presidential office cut the Ministry of Foreign Affairs out of negotiations with China over the deployment of the U.S.-led antimissile Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) system, with...

Residents of Seongju County, North Gyeongsang, protest the deployment of the U.S.-led antimissile Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system in the town on Sept. 8, 2022. [NEWS1]

Diplomatic sources say former President Moon Jae-in's office cut the Ministry of Foreign Affairs out of negotiations with China over the deployment of the U.S.-led antimissile Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) system, with the Blue House taking direct charge of the talks.

The Moon administration followed those talks with the controversial "Three Nos" in October 2017, in which Seoul pledged not to deploy additional Thaad systems, not to participate in U.S.-led missile defense networks and not to transform the U.S.-Korea-Japan relationship into a military alliance.

Beijing has repeatedly voiced its opposition to Thaad, calling it a U.S. scheme to spy on China.

“These negotiations were largely led by the Blue House, and members of the Foreign Ministry were left out of the loop altogether,” a diplomatic source told the JoongAng Ilbo on Monday.

The testimony contradicts that of the Blue House at the time. A presidential spokesperson told the press right before the policy’s announcement that Foreign Ministry officials had been “included in the negotiations” and that both the Korean Embassy in Beijing and the Chinese Embassy in Seoul had “collaborated actively” to reach the agreement.

However, the diplomatic source told the JoongAng Ilbo that the embassies did little more than provide administrative assistance to Blue House officials.

While involving top presidential aides in international negotiations is standard practice, cutting out high-ranking Foreign Ministry officials — and their expertise — from negotiations is diplomatically risky since even the smallest details of talks, including the choice of words, can lead to diplomatic disputes down the road.

Another diplomatic source said the Foreign Ministry, in its internal memos and communications, suggested that negotiators tell their Chinese interlocutors that the Three Nos may be subject to change, and that a provision be added to that effect.

That point went moot, however, when the Blue House led final negotiations with China, according to the source.

Launcher vehicles of the Thaad system placed in Seongju County, North Gyeongsang, on June 22 [YONHAP]

While there was no official declaration from either China or Korea spelling out the policy, then-Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha told the National Assembly in October 2017, after the bilateral negotiations, that the Korean government was considering neither additional deployments of Thaad nor participation in an American missile defense network and that trilateral cooperation with Washington and Japan would not develop into a military alliance.

The Three Nos has plagued Seoul-Beijing ties since the Yoon Suk Yeol administration was inaugurated last year. Yoon vowed to ensure the Thaad system went into operation during his term. As of June, the administration said most preparations to launch the system have been completed.

The installation of the Thaad system in Seongju County, North Gyeongsang, took place in October 2017, but the formation of a committee of experts and officials to carry out an environmental impact assessment was repeatedly delayed.

Presidential records of the Moon administration obtained earlier this year by a lawmaker suggested the liberal administration may have deliberately held up the environmental impact assessment for fear of its impact on a hoped-for visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The Thaad system requires an environmental impact assessment before it can go into active operation.

Experts in Korea said this revelation was hardly surprising given the Moon administration’s priority to engage with North Korea, which would have required improved ties with China.

“At the time, the Moon Jae-in administration considered the Thaad conflict between Korea and China as an obstacle to improving inter-Korean relations and led the negotiations with a political strategy in mind rather than a diplomatic, military or security one,” said Kim Jin-ho, professor of political science at Dankook University. “Their strategy did not work out. Now the poorly patched-up Thaad agreement has come back to haunt them.”

Democratic Party Rep. Yoon Kun-young, who was a presidential aide in 2017, dismissed the allegation that the Blue House singlehandedly led the negotiations with China.

“It is impossible to have the Blue House negotiate a diplomatic case without the involvement of the Foreign Ministry,” Yoon said. “Officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Korean Embassy in China also participated in the consultation process.”

Another diplomatic source who played a key role in crafting Moon’s China policy told the JoongAng Ilbo that the administration "even consulted with the White House" over the Three Nos policy.

BY YOO JEE-HYE, JEONG JIN-WOO AND ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]