Anna Jiwon Park has been covering the politics at The Korea Times since the summer of 2024, when she joined the press pool for the Office of the President in Korea. Prior to that, she spent about five years reporting extensively on financial markets, regulatory authorities and the financial industry. She joined The Korea Times in 2019 after spending eight years as a broadcast journalist at Arirang TV, Korea’s leading global broadcaster, covering politics, defense and culture.
Lee arrives in New York for UN General Assembly
President Lee Jae Myung shakes hands with U.N. Ambassador Cha Ji-hoon upon his arrival at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, Monday (local time). Yonhap
By Anna J. Park
NEW YORK CITY — President Lee Jae Myung arrived in New York on Monday (local time), beginning his four-day visit to the city centered on the U.N. General Assembly and a series of multilateral diplomatic engagements.
The presidential aircraft, carrying Lee, first lady Kim Hea Kyung and accompanying officials and reporters, landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport at around 11:35 a.m. The president was greeted and welcomed at the airport by Cha Ji-hoon, Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations, and Kang Kyung-wha, nominee for ambassador to the United States.
Later in the day, Lee was scheduled to meet with Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management firm, as well as members of the U.S. Congress. Talks are expected to cover the role of Congress in advancing Korea-U.S. relations, along with pressing issues such as the recent mass detention of Korean nationals in at a plant in Georgia and the ongoing challenges in tariff negotiations.
On Tuesday, the president is set to address the United Nations General Assembly, where he is expected to cast his country’s democratic revival as a global model and lay out his foreign policy agenda, including his approach to the Korean Peninsula.
On Wednesday, Lee will make history as the first Korean president to preside over an open debate at the U.N. Security Council.
On Thursday, the final day of his visit in New York, Lee will participate in an investor relations event on Wall Street, meeting leading financial figures and Korean business executives to promote investment in the Korean economy.