Officials leave after publicly funded study abroad, prompting Foreign Ministry to recover costs

The Foreign Ministry has been sending around 35 employees abroad each year to develop diplomatic talent, covering tuition, living expenses and medical insurance. But four employees who received the support reportedly quit without completing the mandatory service required after their return over the past three years.

The cases have raised questions because half of those employees resigned less than a month after finishing their overseas training. The ministry spends between 4.3 billion and 4.7 billion won each year on the program, which sends staff to countries including the United States, Britain, China and Japan.

The program was intended to build diplomatic officials with professional expertise and future-oriented capabilities. Under Article 42 of the Enforcement Decree of the Public Officials’ Talent Development Act, employees must serve for twice the length of their overseas training.

The ministry is taking steps to recover training expenses already paid when employees fail to meet that obligation. The figures were provided to Lee Ki-heon, a Democratic Party lawmaker on the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee.