“Are Brazilian eggs a gift from President Lee to Lula?” ... Foreign Ministry says Han Dong-hoon’s allegation is “groundless”

[Financial News] Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon and the Foreign Ministry clashed over the so-called “presidential gift” allegations that, following the summit between President Lee Jae-myung and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the government imported Brazilian eggs at a high price despite their lack of economic viability.


The controversy erupted during a parliamentary audit by the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, held at the South Korean Consulate General in São Paulo, Brazil, on the 15th (local time). In a Facebook post on the 16th, Han said, “After extensively questioning Ambassador to Brazil Choi Young-han about the connection between egg imports and the Lee Jae-myung–Lula summit, I received a clear answer from the ambassador that ‘there is room for interpretation.’”
Han argued, “This clearly contradicts the answer from Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Minister Song Mi-ryung, who said Brazil’s egg imports had nothing to do with the summit. Buying each egg for 1,464 won and selling it domestically for 143 won, then making up the difference of more than 1,300 won with taxpayers’ money, gives rise to reasonable suspicion that President Lee gave President Lula a gift by opening the market to economically unviable imports.” He also cited the fact that Brazil’s agriculture and livestock minister announced last February that opening the egg market was an achievement of the summit with the South Korean president.

The Foreign Ministry immediately issued a statement and rebutted Han’s claims point by point. It said, “Imports of Brazilian eggs were not decided at the summit. They had been discussed and pursued separately by the agricultural authorities of the two countries well before then, to stabilize domestic egg supply and diversify import sources.”
Regarding Ambassador Choi’s remark about “room for interpretation,” the ministry explained, “That was simply an explanation taking into account circumstances such as Brazil promoting agricultural cooperation exhibitions as an achievement of summit diplomacy on the occasion of President Lula’s visit to South Korea; it was not intended to acknowledge a link between the summit and egg imports.” It added, “Ambassador Choi clearly answered during the parliamentary audit that eggs had never been mentioned in discussions about the summit agenda,” and countered, “Han is making claims that do not reflect the facts by quoting only part of the answer.”

The People Power Party also joined the attack. Party leader Jang Dong-hyuk criticized the move, asking, “Was helping Brazil’s leftist government more important than public health?” Song Seok-jun, chair of the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, pointed out, “The eggs cost 200 million won, while ancillary costs such as shipping and tariffs came to 1.4 billion won, bringing the total expenditure to 1.6 billion won.” He called it “an absurd attempt to import eggs from Brazil, on the other side of the globe and farther from South Korea than anywhere else.”
In response to the Foreign Ministry’s explanation, Han posted again on Facebook, fiercely criticizing the government: “The Lee Jae-myung administration shouldn’t pathetically try to ‘walk back the ambassador’s remarks.’ There’s no point trying to pick up eggs that have already fallen.” He said, “To ensure accuracy, I gave the ambassador two opportunities to change the answer, and the response I received was clear,” and warned, “The more they try to walk it back like this, the more explosive the original remark will become.”
[email protected] Park Ji-hyun Reporter