Ruling Party Hits Back: 'Criticizing Lee Jae-myung While Yoon Packed Soju for His Trips?'
After the People Power Party criticized President Lee Jae-myung's frequent overseas trips, the Democratic Party of Korea countered on the 1st, saying, "Have they completely forgotten how badly they degraded South Korea's diplomacy?" The rival parties are trading barbs over the head of state's diplomatic schedule.
Democratic Party spokesperson Lee Yong-woo claimed at a written briefing on the 1st that "Yoon Suk-yeol packed bottled soju aboard the presidential jet every time he traveled abroad, and Kim Keon-hee canceled official schedules to visit luxury boutiques." The spokesperson criticized that Yoon "used profanity during an official summit with the United States, becoming a global laughingstock, and the massively expensive Expo bid ended in failure," adding, "Above all, he plunged South Korea's international standing in an instant through martial law and insurrection." He stressed that "the Lee Jae-myung government is recovering from this decline in a short period of time."
The Democratic Party also explained the specific schedules the People Power Party had taken issue with. Spokesperson Lee said, "The drum performance by the leaders of South Korea and Japan, which People Power Party chief Jang Dong-hyuk claimed was a vacation outing, was hospitality prepared by Japan as the host country as a friendly event following the summit." He also noted that the Lumiere Summit in France was an international conference that President Lee personally chaired as co-chair at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron.
President Lee himself pushed back on X on the 31st, saying, "To a judge's eye, only judges appear; to a pig's eye, only pigs appear," and Jang responded on Facebook the same day, "Do all citizens who criticize him look like pigs to you?"
People Power Party floor leader Chong Jeong-sik said on Facebook on the 1st, "Whether the president travels frequently or rarely, if diplomacy were being handled properly, the public would not view the first couple's overseas trips with suspicion."
