Koreans in China
Controversies which arose during his tenure there include his 1999 remarks in which he condemned South Korean and non-governmental organisation involvement with the issue of North Korean refugees in northeast China, deriding it as "neo-interventionism", and claimed that the safety of refugees repatriated to North Korea had been guaranteed. His comments spurred South Korean human rights activists to hold protests at the Chinese embassy in Seoul and circulate a petition urging the United Nations to grant refugee status to North Koreans in China.