\nAmbassador to Australia Lee Jong-sup was set to attend an interagency meeting of South Korea’s ambassadors to six countries on defense cooperation on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The meeting comes as criticism grew over Lee’s appointment and departure after revelations that he was being investigated for alleged interference in a military probe into a Marine’s death.<\/p>\n
Lee returned to Seoul last Thursday, 11 days after he assumed the job as the top envoy to Canberra.<\/p>\n
Speculation arose that the meeting could have been organized in haste to give Lee a pretext to return home because the public sentiment is worsening in the run-up to the parliamentary elections set for April 10.<\/p>\n
The meeting will be attended by South Korea’s ambassadors to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Qatar and Poland, as well as Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul and Defense Minister Shin Won-sik.<\/p>\n
They are expected to discuss the global defense market and other pending issues on defense cooperation and exports.<\/p>\n
Lee previously came under pressure
\nto return following revelations he was under a travel ban at the time of his appointment over his alleged interference in a military probe into the death of Cpl. Chae Su-geun.<\/p>\n
Chae was killed last July during a search mission for victims of heavy rains when Lee was the defense minister.<\/p>\n
Source: Yonhap News Agency<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ambassador to Australia Lee Jong-sup was set to attend an interagency meeting of South Korea’s ambassadors to six countries on defense cooperation on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The meeting comes as criticism grew over Lee’s appointment and departure after revelations…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n