Ambassador to Australia Lee Jong-sup met with the chief of the country’s arms procurement agency Monday, officials said, days after he flew back home for what he said were official duties amid calls for his return to face an investigation to which he is subject.
Lee met with Seok Jong-gun, head of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), to discuss defense exports, officials with knowledge of the matter said.
Lee returned home Thursday, less than two weeks after he assumed the post in Canberra, as criticism has been growing over Lee’s appointment and departure after revelations that he was banned from leaving the country over an investigation into his alleged interference in a military probe into a Marine’s death last year.
The foreign ministry said Lee returned to attend a defense cooperation meeting of South Korean ambassadors to six countries, including Australia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Qatar and Poland.
But speculation arose that the meeting may have been org
anized to give Lee a pretext to return home, because there has been no precedent for such a meeting.
Some critics also speculated that the presidential office ordered Lee to return in haste as public sentiment has been worsening in the run-up to the parliamentary elections set for April 10.
On Friday, the foreign ministry said Lee had separate meetings with the ministers of foreign affairs, defense and industry, apparently dismissing the speculation about the timing and real purpose of his trip back home.
The ministry said Lee will have various meetings with officials of government agencies involved in the defense cooperation, as well as with the top envoys of the six countries in Seoul.
The ambassadors’ defense cooperation meeting will take place later this week, a foreign ministry official said, without giving further details.
Source: Yonhap News Agency