Democratic Party: 'What did Kim Keon Hee's luxury-shopping trips accomplish?'

PPP: 'Government raises travel budget, cuts funds for US alliance'

Lee fires back on X: 'Pigs can only see other pigs'

President Lee Jae Myung and first lady Kim Hye-kyung arrive at Seoul Airport in Seongnam on Sept. 27 after returning from state visits to the United States and Mexico. [Yonhap]
President Lee Jae Myung and first lady Kim Hye-kyung arrive at Seoul Airport in Seongnam on Sept. 27 after returning from state visits to the United States and Mexico. [Yonhap]

Political sparring over President Lee Jae Myung's overseas trips continued through the weekend.

The opposition People Power Party criticized the frequency of Lee's foreign travel and the first lady's accompaniment on trips, while also highlighting the ruling Democratic Party's own past attacks on overseas summitry when it was in opposition.

People Power Party Chief Spokesperson Choi Bo-yun said in a statement Sunday that Lee had responded on social media to public and opposition criticism over "14 trips to 23 countries already" by posting that "pigs can only see other pigs." "What the public sees is not a 'pig' — it is the endlessly careless and irresponsible face of the ruling party," Choi said.

Choi was responding to a post Lee had put up on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday, in which Lee quoted Cheong Wa Dae's rebuttal of opposition criticism of his overseas trips and wrote: "As they say, a Buddha sees a Buddha and a pig sees a pig — people can only see as much as they know, so please understand."

Choi said the government had allocated 28.99 billion won ($21.7 million) in the base budget for summit diplomacy this year, then added 36.63 billion won in contingency funds on top of that, and that next year's proposed budget stands at 65.33 billion won — a 125.3 percent increase over this year's base figure. "The government is more than doubling the summit diplomacy budget while cutting spending on North Korea denuclearization cooperation and Korea-US strategic cooperation by about 20 percent each," Choi said. "This is a government that raises the money for plane tickets and cuts the money for denuclearization and the Korea-US alliance."

Choi also recalled that when the previous government had allocated about 24.9 billion won in base funding and about 32.9 billion won in contingency funds for summit diplomacy, the Democratic Party — then in opposition — had denounced it as "an affront to the National Assembly's budget review authority" and "a waste of taxpayer money worthy of the Guinness Book of Records." "Overseas trips that were 'a waste of taxpayer money' when they were in opposition have become 'fighting through the pain' now that they are in power," Choi said.

Choi pressed further, saying Lee's own words — "people can only see as much as they know" — amounted to a confession that the Democratic Party had been ignorant when it attacked summit diplomacy as wasteful while in opposition. "By the president's own logic, admit that the Democratic Party's eyes back then were 'the eyes of a pig,'" Choi said.

Choi also urged Lee to stop rushing to fire back at critics on social media in real time. "The first thing the president should do is not blame the public and the opposition, but reflect on the Democratic Party's own past," Choi said.

The ruling Democratic Party, meanwhile, accused the PPP of turning even presidential overseas trips into fodder for political conflict.

Democratic Party Spokesperson Shin Hyeon-yeong said the PPP was "fixated on finding fault at a time when it should be evaluating diplomatic results and checking on follow-through." "A responsible opposition party should lend its support to cooperation that serves the national interest and work together to ensure that results translate into better lives for the people," Shin said.

Shin also directed pointed questions at the record of former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who had billed himself as "South Korea's No. 1 salesman." "We ask the Yoon Suk Yeol government: can it explain what benefit South Korea actually gained from those trips — marked as they were by the 'Biden' gaffe, Kim Keon Hee's luxury shopping, and the controversy over a high-priced necklace lobbying scandal during the NATO visit?" Shin said, adding that national interest should transcend partisan lines. "The PPP should stop the political fighting and lend its strength to diplomacy that grows South Korea's national interest," Shin urged.


shindw@heraldcorp.com