The People Power Party (PPP) launched an offensive against the ruling bloc on Friday (Oct. 9), calling it a "double humiliation" and an "act of rejecting the Lee Jae-myung administration," after Representative Jung Chung-rae, a former leader of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), changed his parliamentary audit schedule due to delays in the issuance of a U.S. visa amid rumors of unusual friction in diplomatic and security communication channels between South Korea and the United States.

In a commentary on the same day, Senior Floor Spokesperson Choi Eun-seok remarked regarding Rep. Jung, "While the specific reason for the delay in issuing the visa has not yet been confirmed, it is hard to erase doubts about whether Rep. Jung's past anti-American activities, as well as the government and ruling party's failed diplomacy toward the United States and cracks in the trust of the South Korea-U.S. alliance, influenced this situation."

He continued, "Reports followed one after another that a scheduled visit and meeting by National Intelligence Service (NIS) Director Lee Jong-suk with U.S. intelligence agencies in March fell through, and that the U.S. side has even put on hold the visa issuance and diplomatic status approval for NIS personnel scheduled to be dispatched to the South Korean Embassy in the United States."

Senior Floor Spokesperson Choi emphasized, "If such abnormal signals continue across diplomacy, intelligence, and national security, the government must first thoroughly check whether there are problems with communication and trust between South Korea and the United States."

He added, "Recently, there are talks that President Lee Jae-myung has been practicing hard with an eye on a golf meeting with President Trump," pointing out, "The South Korea-U.S. alliance does not become solid just by playing a round of golf with President Trump."

Five-term lawmaker Na Kyung-won wrote on Facebook on the same day, "It is an unprecedented double humiliation where the top intelligence chief responsible for national security is thoroughly bypassed by the core U.S. intelligence network, and a member of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee who previously led the ruling party cannot even set foot on the soil of an ally."

Rep. Na criticized, "The United States is showing a complete lack of confidence in the Lee Jae-myung administration's security perspective through the most resolute action," adding, "While narrow-minded, frog-in-the-well pro-China and pro-North Korea ideological politics may draw cheers from core supporters, the shattered trust in the alliance shakes the very existence of the nation."

Four-term lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo also said, "The failed entry of former Democratic Party leader Jung Chung-rae into the United States means that our ally, the United States, has rejected entry by the Lee Jae-myung administration. Is today's South Korea really an ally of the United States?" adding, "The government must explain why our ally, the United States, is denying entry to a key figure of the Lee Jae-myung administration and on what grounds he is deemed a dangerous person."

(Photo: Yonhap News)