▲ President Lee Jae-myung and French President Emmanuel Macron shake hands on October 7 (local time) at the Marguerite and Aimé Maeght Foundation in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, where the Lumière Summit, an international film and audiovisual summit, is being held.
Ruling and opposition parties continued a sharp war of words today (November 1) after President Lee Jae-myung directly retorted the previous day to the opposition's offensive over his "frequent overseas trips," saying that "to a pig's eye, only pigs can be seen."
Jeong Jeom-sig, floor leader of the People Power Party, pointed out on social media today, "A president's overseas trip is a means, not an end in itself," adding, "Whether he travels overseas frequently or rarely, if diplomacy were being handled properly, the public would not be casting suspicious eyes on the presidential couple's overseas trips."
He continued, "Keep in mind that the South Korea-U.S. alliance has never been this precarious under any previous administration since democratization in 1987," adding, "I cannot shake the suspicion that the president having to receive IV drips and suffering nosebleeds is because he stays up late at night glued to social media and plays too much golf."
Floor Leader Jeong raised allegations that First Lady Kim had an unusually high number of solo schedules and that the identity of accompanying contractors was dubious, demanding, "The public cannot help but ask what the purpose of the couple's overseas diplomacy is. Stop blaming and making comparisons with the previous administration, and prove yourself through results."
Choi Bo-yoon, chief spokesperson for the People Power Party, also pointed out during a briefing at the National Assembly that day, "Overseas trips that were called a 'waste of taxpayers' money' when in the opposition are now praised as a 'fighting spirit on IV drips' once in power," adding, "Instead of scolding the public and the opposition, the proper course of action is to apologize for past political strife."
Chief Spokesperson Choi also stated, "The president said that 'people only see as much as they know,' which means that seeing summit diplomacy only as a 'waste of taxpayers' money' during his time in the opposition is an admission of how little he knew," adding, "By the president's own logic, he should admit that the Democratic Party's eyes back then were the 'eyes of a pig.'"
Earlier, during last month's National Assembly House Steering Committee audit, the People Power Party took issue with President Lee's frequent overseas travel schedule and First Lady Kim Hye-kyung accompanying him, pointing out that he had visited 23 countries over 14 trips.
Wi Sung-lac, director of the National Security Office, refuted this the following day at a press conference at the Blue House, explaining that as South Korea's international stature has grown, the number of multilateral conferences to attend has increased, and regarding the first lady's presence, added, "Summit diplomacy customarily involves the first lady."
President Lee also fired back directly yesterday on social media, writing, "As the saying goes, 'To the eyes of Buddha, only Buddha is seen, and to the eyes of a pig, only pigs are seen.' Please understand that people only see as much as they know."
He emphasized, "To someone who views a presidential overseas trip as leisurely enjoying drinking, shopping, and sightseeing, even an overseas trip involving high-intensity preparation, long flights, packed official business schedules without even half a day off, and work of such high intensity that one repeatedly receives IV drips and suffers nosebleeds might look like going on vacation."
The Democratic Party also pushed back today, calling the People Power Party's criticism "excessive slander" and stating that President Lee's summit diplomacy is leading to tangible results, such as expanding economic cooperation and enhancing the nation's international stature.
Spokesperson Lee Yong-woo countered in a written commentary that day, "Turning the host country's hospitality and the elevated status of our cultural industry into 'a trip taken for fun' is both ignorance of diplomacy and self-destructive politics that harms national interests."
He continued, "Yoon Suk Yeol packed plastic bottles of soju on the presidential plane whenever he went on overseas trips, and Kim Keon-hee canceled official schedules to visit luxury stores," adding, "He became a laughingstock worldwide by using vulgar language during his summit diplomacy schedule in the United States, and the bid to host the World Expo, into which massive amounts of money were poured, ended in failure. Above all, martial law and insurrection plunged South Korea's international standing in an instant."
Spokesperson Shin Hyun-young also noted in a commentary, "To leap forward as an export powerhouse and expand our role in the international community, the president's summit diplomacy is not a target for partisan strife but a scene of national interest that should be supported in a bipartisan manner," adding, "Instead of assessing diplomatic achievements and checking follow-up implementation, the People Power Party is engrossed solely in finding fault."
She then cited agreements to upgrade the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Singapore and the signing of memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with the Philippines in defense and critical minerals, criticizing, "The People Power Party, which disrupts pragmatic diplomacy that expands national interests, should be ashamed of itself."
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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