Wi Sung-lac: “It’s unfair to criticize the frequency of summit diplomacy or ask why the first lady goes”

[Financial News] Office of National Security chief Wi Sung-lac said on the 30th that it was “somewhat unfair to raise issues such as whether there is an especially excessive amount of summit diplomacy or why the first lady goes,” responding to criticism from the opposition that the president engages in summit diplomacy too often and to criticism about the spouse accompanying him.
At a Blue House briefing that day, Wi said of the parliamentary audit held the previous day, “The opposition lawmakers in particular said there was too much summit diplomacy.” He continued, “I first went into the audit, stayed a little over an hour and left. Later, I went back late at night and stayed for about an hour and a half to about two hours. Looking back, it seems this issue came up a lot in the meantime. I wanted to answer it, but didn’t get the chance.” He explained that this was why he had been unable to clarify the matter.
Wi explained, “Because our country’s international standing has risen significantly, there are several multilateral occasions our leader has to attend throughout the year.” He cited the Group of Seven (G7) and Group of Twenty (G20) summits, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), ASEAN-related summits and the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
He explained that schedules to visit other countries are also arranged in connection with attending multilateral meetings. Since there are countries that have long requested visits, the idea is to link multilateral diplomacy with bilateral diplomacy.
He stressed that exchanges between leaders are also necessary to manage relations with major countries. Wi said there is considerable demand for leaders to travel back and forth for diplomacy with the United States, while shuttle diplomacy is taking place with Japan. “Taking these things into account, there is somewhat of a constant number of summit-diplomacy engagements that need to take place over the course of a year,” he said.
He also pushed back against criticism of First Lady Kim Hye-kyung accompanying the president on overseas trips. Wi said, “Such summit diplomacy customarily includes the first lady,” explaining that leaders’ spouses attend international meetings such as APEC and that separate programs for spouses are also arranged.
He added, “This is the same whoever becomes president next and whichever administration is in charge.”
Wi said he hoped the background to the summit-diplomacy schedule and the spouse’s accompanying trips would be sufficiently understood. He added, “As the public may misunderstand, I’d like to use this opportunity to offer the explanation I wasn’t able to give fully yesterday.”
[email protected] Seong Seok-woo Reporter