Democratic Party floor leader Han Byung-do said on the 22nd that President Lee Jae-myung's overseas trips are "not tourism," urging the opposition People Power Party to stop what he called low-grade political attacks and instead support the president's all-out diplomatic push.
"A super week of summit diplomacy has begun," Han said at a party leadership meeting at the National Assembly. "President Trump and President Xi Jinping are also going head-to-head through their summit to advance their own countries' interests on trade and tariffs, artificial intelligence and critical minerals such as rare earths."
"World leaders are competing fiercely for their own countries' interests, so shouldn't our president run even harder?" he said. Responding to the People Power Party's criticism of the budget for the president's trips, he said: "It is a mistake to assume that every president will behave the way Yoon Suk-yeol and Kim Keon-hee did." He added: "Overseas trips are not tourism."
"The more you belittle this as collecting diplomatic mileage, the more the loser is neither the president nor the Democratic Party, but the Republic of Korea," he said.
On the president's diplomatic record, Han said Lee "successfully hosted the APEC summit right after taking office and has pursued pragmatic, national-interest-driven diplomacy without pause." He added that the administration had "responded to tariff, economic and security issues with the United States and brought about stable relations and substantive cooperation with China and Japan," while "broadening the horizons of advanced industry and trade cooperation in Europe and opening up critical mineral supply chains and new markets in Central Asia."
He said the current trip would "expand new opportunities for our companies in energy, critical minerals and defense," adding that Lee would use his keynote address to propose United Nations reform and measures for international contributions to people's welfare, while building support for peaceful coexistence on the Korean Peninsula.
"We will back up these diplomatic achievements with follow-up legislation and policy so they translate into better lives and more opportunities for the public," he said.
Turning to household costs ahead of the Chuseok holiday, Han said the cost of a holiday ancestral rites table for four had fallen to 310,889 won, the first decline in nine years. He said the government had "put in more than double last year's budget for discounts on agricultural and livestock products and taken pre-emptive steps such as waiving highway tolls during the holiday."
He also criticized the People Power Party's planned Chuseok rally to report its policy record to the public, calling it "a nasty intent to stage a political fight rather than look at the public's shopping baskets ahead of Chuseok." He urged the party to "stop trying to turn even the biggest holiday into a stage for political strife."
