President Lee Jae-myung criticized claims from some quarters that the government wasted 80 billion won in taxpayer money by importing Brazilian eggs at high prices and selling them cheaply, calling it the "spreading of false information for political purposes."

President Lee attached related materials to a post on X (formerly Twitter) and wrote, "I hope this will be corrected."

President Lee stated, "This summer, domestic egg prices skyrocketed and supplies were short, while export availability from existing sources like Asia and the United States was also insufficient. Although transportation costs were high, we imported a small amount of eggs from Brazil on an experimental basis to secure an additional alternative import channel."

He continued, "When prices of daily necessities for ordinary citizens soar due to supply shortages and other factors, bringing in more expensive overseas supplies and providing them domestically at cheaper prices is a standard measure taken by authorities to manage the cost of living," explaining that it is a policy similar to the petroleum price ceiling system implemented to curb soaring fuel prices.

In response to criticism that the eggs were imported at an excessively high cost, President Lee added, "It was market price, but incidental expenses such as long-distance air transportation to the other side of the globe were substantial," adding, "Even so, it accounted for only 0.8% of the total import volume, with the total import cost amounting to around 1.6 billion won."

The government purchased eggs locally in Brazil at 178 won each, but as the total import unit price rose to 1,464 won including airfreight and tariffs, controversy arose over "wasting taxpayers' money."

People Power Party Representative Kim Yong-tae and others raised this issue during the parliamentary audit, and the party's leader, Jang Dong-hyeok, also criticized on Facebook on October 10, writing, "Did we not fill the bellies of someone in Brazil with our people's taxpayer money?"

In a separate post on X regarding the problem of illegal scalping of professional baseball tickets, President Lee stated, "Don't even dream about it," warning, "The losses will be far greater. We will thoroughly examine even new methods used to evade crackdowns and swiftly reinforce countermeasures."

He also shared a news article reporting that the provisional death toll from storm and flood damage this summer was tallied at one person, offering words of encouragement: "The efforts of central and local government officials to minimize casualties contributed greatly."

(Photo: Yonhap News)