Key facts
- The People Power Party said President Lee Jae Myung had visited 23 countries over 14 trips, raised at a National Assembly audit.
- Floor leader Jeong Jeom-sig said a president's overseas trip is a means, not an end in itself, in a November 1 social media post.
- Chief spokesperson Choi Bo-yoon said trips called a waste of taxpayers' money in opposition were praised once in power.
- Wi Sung-lac said South Korea's greater international standing meant more multilateral conferences and that summit diplomacy customarily involves the first lady.
- The Democratic Party called the People Power Party's criticism excessive slander and cited economic cooperation results.
South Korea's rival parties exchanged criticism over President Lee Jae Myung's overseas travel, with the People Power Party questioning the cost and the opposition party's conduct and the Democratic Party calling the attacks excessive slander. President Lee Jae-myung and French President Emmanuel Macron shook hands on October 7 at the Marguerite and Aimé Maeght Foundation in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, where the Lumière Summit, an international film and audiovisual summit, was being held.
At a National Assembly House Steering Committee audit, the People Power Party said Lee had visited 23 countries over 14 trips and raised the first lady's accompanying him. Wi Sung-lac, director of the National Security Office, said at a Blue House press conference the following day that South Korea's greater international standing meant more multilateral conferences, and that summit diplomacy customarily involves the first lady.
President Lee wrote on social media that to the eyes of a pig only pigs are seen, and that people only see as much as they know. He said a trip of intense preparation, long flights and packed schedules, to the point of receiving IV drips and nosebleeds, could look like a vacation to a critic.
On November 1, People Power Party floor leader Jeong Jeom-sig said a president's overseas trip is a means, not an end in itself, and questioned whether the South Korea-U.S. alliance had been so precarious since democratization in 1987. Chief spokesperson Choi Bo-yoon said trips called a waste of taxpayers' money in opposition were praised once in power. The Democratic Party said Lee's summit diplomacy was expanding economic cooperation.