The foreign ministry on Thursday refuted a claim by a minor party lawmaker-elect that the government used its plans to open new diplomatic missions in a dozen foreign countries last year to win the bid to host the 2030 World Expo in Busan.

Kim Joon-hyung, who won a proportional National Assembly seat in last month’s parliamentary elections, claimed earlier this week that the Yoon Suk Yeol government announced the plans to establish new embassies in 12 countries only three weeks before the host for the next World Expo was to be decided in an international vote.

In early November, the foreign ministry had unveiled plans to open missions in the Marshall Islands, Sierra Leon, Zambia, Suriname, Estonia, Luxembourg and six others.

Kim claimed that all of the 12 countries, except for one, were among those that were to vote in the Expo bidding.

“It is not true. The foreign ministry is pushing to establish the diplomatic missions as part of efforts to realize the vision as a global pivotal state,” a foreign minist
ry official said.

The selection of the 12 countries was made in consideration of the principle of reciprocity, as many of them already have their embassies in South Korea, the ministry official added.

South Korea’s Busan city lost the bid to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Kim won the election ticket as a candidate of the newly launched Rebuilding Korea Party, led by disgraced former Justice Minister Cho Kuk, a hard-line critic of Yoon.

Kim, a former international relations professor, served as the head of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy, the foreign ministry-affiliated think tank, under the previous liberal Moon Jae-in government.

Source: Yonhap News Agency