Lee has made 14 overseas trips to 23 countries since taking office
Lawmaker accuses president of prioritizing social media optics over domestic issues
![President Lee Jae Myung and first lady Kim Hye-kyung wave to well-wishers at Felipe Angeles International Airport in Mexico City on Saturday (local time) before departing after a state visit to Mexico. [Yonhap]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/10/01/rcv.YNA.20260927.PYH2026092700410001300_P1.jpg)
People Power Party lawmaker Lee Jin-suk on Thursday criticized President Lee Jae Myung for making frequent overseas trips since taking office, saying his governance priorities were "excessively skewed toward foreign schedules over domestic issues."
Speaking at a press conference at the National Assembly's media center, Lee said the president puts on a "show" of working hard by sharing even classified matters on social media, but the reality amounts to "superficial governance — traveling abroad roughly once a month."
An analysis by Lee of the president's overseas travel over the 484 days since his inauguration found that Lee Jae Myung had made 14 overseas trips, visiting 23 countries. The total number of country visits stood at 29, with 80 days spent abroad.
On average, the president has departed for an overseas trip once every 35 days since taking office. Compared with former President Yoon Suk Yeol's average departure interval of about 44 days over the same 484-day period, Lee Jae Myung's interval is about nine days shorter and his travel frequency about 27 percent higher.
Compared with former President Moon Jae-in, who traveled abroad roughly once every 54 days, Lee's interval is 19 days shorter — the highest overseas travel frequency of any president across both liberal and conservative administrations. Lee's 29 country visits outpaced Yoon's 18 by a factor of 1.61, and Moon's 15 by a factor of 1.93. The number of countries visited — 23 — similarly exceeded those of both predecessors by wide margins.
"With national security threatened by a recent landmine provocation in the Demilitarized Zone, and people's livelihoods devastated by high prices and an economic downturn, public anger and frustration are reaching a peak over a president who has spent roughly three months roaming abroad instead of attending to the duties he should be handling," Lee said. She added that the president should stop fixating on "performative social media promotion" and instead focus on domestic issues and the hardships facing ordinary people.
mp1256@heraldcorp.com
