Ruling and opposition parties clash over Lee’s overseas diplomacy... Opposition alleges double standards; ruling party calls it “self-harming politics”

[Financial News] The dispute between the ruling and opposition parties over President Lee Jae Myung’s overseas diplomacy intensified on the 1st. The People Power Party attacked the increased budget for overseas trips and the president’s “pig’s eyes” remark, accusing the Democratic Party of applying a double standard in its past criticism of such trips. The Democratic Party countered by citing diplomatic controversies during the Yoon Suk Yeol administration and calling the People Power Party’s criticism “self-harming politics that undermines the national interest.”
The dispute was triggered by criticism of the president’s overseas trips during a National Assembly Steering Committee audit on the 29th of last month. People Power Party lawmaker Kim Seung-soo, the party’s ranking member on the committee, took issue with the number of trips and Kim Hye-kyung’s accompanying the president, saying Lee had visited 23 countries on 14 occasions.
The debate escalated after President Lee directly responded on the 31st of last month by sharing a post on X defending his overseas trips. He highlighted the demanding schedule, even mentioning IV drips and nosebleeds. He wrote, “As the saying goes, a Buddha sees only Buddhas and a pig sees only pigs; people see only as much as they know.”
In a commentary that day, People Power Party chief spokesperson Choi Bo-yoon took aim at the Democratic Party for having criticized the Yoon Suk Yeol administration’s budget and reserve-fund allocations for summit diplomacy when it was in opposition, calling them an “infringement of the National Assembly’s budget review authority” and a “waste of taxpayers’ money.” Choi said pointedly, “When they were in opposition, overseas trips were ‘a waste of taxpayers’ money’; now that they’re in power, they call them ‘IV-drip heroics.’”
Choi said, “When the previous administration allocated about 24.9 billion won in the regular budget for summit diplomacy and about 32.9 billion won in reserve funds, the Democratic Party, then in opposition, attacked it as an ‘infringement of the National Assembly’s budget review authority’ and ‘a waste of taxpayers’ money worthy of the Guinness Book of Records.’ Yet after that same party came to power, it added even more to the reserve funds and sharply increased the regular budget for the following year.”
Choi added, “The fact that summit diplomacy looked like nothing but a ‘waste of taxpayers’ money’ when they were in opposition is an admission of how little they knew. If they understand now, the proper thing is to apologize for past political wrangling, not berate the public and the opposition. By the president’s own logic, they should admit that the Democratic Party’s eyes back then were ‘the eyes of a pig.’”
The Democratic Party defended the president, arguing that the diplomatic achievements of the previous and current administrations were different. In a written briefing that day, Democratic Party spokesperson Lee Yong-woo said, “The People Power Party has resorted to excessive slander over President Lee Jae Myung’s summit diplomacy,” criticizing the party for “completely forgetting how much it made South Korean diplomacy a laughingstock.”
Lee cited the controversy over Yoon Suk Yeol’s use of profane language during an overseas trip, Kim Keon Hee’s visit to a luxury goods store and the failed bid to host the Expo, arguing that calls at the time to cut the budget were justified. By contrast, he emphasized that the Lee administration was achieving results, including the conclusion of negotiations with the United States on reciprocal tariffs, securing an ally’s support for the construction of nuclear-powered submarines, and progress in talks on the return of wartime operational control.
Lee urged the People Power Party to stop its attacks on summit diplomacy, saying, “Turning the warm reception from other countries and the elevated standing of our cultural industries into ‘trips taken for fun’ shows ignorance about diplomacy and is self-harming politics that undermines the national interest.”
[email protected] Kim Hyeong-gu Reporter