It was revealed that a budget of more than 70 million won was spent on the ‘Defense Industry Cooperation Mission Chiefs Meeting’, which former Australian Ambassador Lee Jong-seop attended after returning to Korea 11 days after taking office.
According to data presented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the office of Representative Yang Gi-dae of the Democratic Party of Korea, the meeting of the heads of missions of six countries cooperating in the defense industry held between March 25 and 29 included travel expenses of 65 Won million, earned rent of 3.48 million, earned general accommodation costs of 1.4 million, earned business promotion costs Total budget of approximately 71.5 million, including 1.85 million earned.
In addition, operational costs such as airfare that some embassies have requested are also being settled, so the total budget spent is expected to increase further.
Former Ambassador Lee, who returned to Korea 5 days before the meeting, received support for all flight and accommodation expenses in order to “perform official duties.”
The last meeting of the Heads of the Defense Industry Cooperation Mission was hastily held to justify Lee’s return to Korea as controversy grew over former Ambassador Lee, who was appointed as Australia’s ambassador while barred from leaving the country due to suspicions of external pressure on the investigation. of the ‘Chae Sang-byeong Incident’ and left the country after receiving the approval of the Ministry of Justice A debate arose over the meeting that was being held.
In fact, it was only through a press release issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that some heads of diplomatic missions from the six countries present at the time, including Australia, Saudi Arabia and Poland, became aware of the meeting.
This is one of the reasons why the ‘bridesmaid debate’ arose.
The hurried situation of the meeting is also visible in this year’s budget, where from the 440 million won budget allocated to the Bilateral Economic Diplomacy Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which prepared the meeting, only 47 million won was allocated for other operations.
If this meeting was originally scheduled and spent under the budget item ‘Heads of Mission Meetings and Response to Other Diplomatic Issues’, there should be an increase in the budget or changes in detailed items compared to the previous year, but that was not the case.
The former Ambassador Lee Jong-seop resigned on the 29th, which was the last day of the meeting of the heads of missions which was held after many twists and turns.
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