Overseas trips add to debate over Korea's shifting political standards
President Lee Jae Myung bows beside first lady Kim Hea Kyung before boarding the presidential plane at Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Sept. 21, to attend the U.N. General Assembly in New York and to make a state visit to Mexico. It was Lee’s latest overseas trip. Yonhap
Parties reverse arguments on presidential travel, golf, official jet, after power transition
President Lee Jae Myung’s overseas trips have again drawn attention to Korea’s shifting political standards, adding to a familiar cycle of disputes over presidential golf and the presidential plane whenever power passes between conservative and liberal administrations.
The controversies center on taxpayer money and the public's attitudes toward presidential privilege, with governing parties defending certain activities as necessary for diplomacy or official duties and the opposition calling them wasteful or excessive — arguments that often switch sides under successive administrations.
In the latest controversy, National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac on Friday defended the frequency of Lee’s overseas trips accompanied by first lady Kim Hea Kyung.
“Korea’s international standing requires its president to attend regular multilateral gatherings and bilateral visits,” Wi said. “Spouses also accompany leaders as an established diplomatic practice.”
Wi’s defense followed an Oct. 1 analysis by Rep. Lee Jin-sook of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP).
It counted 14 trips covering 23 countries in Lee’s first 484 days in office, which was more frequent than his two predecessors — conservative Yoon Suk Yeol and liberal Moon Jae-in — over the same period.
Yoon was president from May 2022 to April 2025 and Moon from May 2017 to May 2022.
At an Oct. 29 parliamentary audit, fellow PPP Rep. Kim Seung-su cited economic hardship in criticizing the frequency of the president’s travel and separately questioned the first lady’s accompaniment.
Lee responded on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday by stressing his demanding schedules and diplomatic results, saying “pigs see only pigs” in rejecting suggestions of tourism.
The PPP countered on Sunday by questioning the president's achievements. In particular, the party recalled that the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) had condemned Yoon’s travel spending as wasteful and his use of contingency funds as undermining parliamentary budget oversight.
The reversal was evident in November 2023, when Rep. Hong Ki-won of the DPK contrasted Yoon’s overseas travel budget with cuts to spending on people’s livelihoods.
Then-Prime Minister Han Duck-soo rejected the suggestion of waste, while PPP lawmakers defended diplomacy-related expenditures.
Golf has followed a similar pattern.
In November 2024, the DPK dismissed explanations that Yoon was practicing golf to prepare for diplomacy with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump following his reelection. The party urged Yoon to visit people struggling economically instead.
With Lee preparing for a possible round of golf with Trump on the occasion of the U.S.-hosted G20 summit in Miami in December, the PPP questioned why preparations ridiculed under Yoon were now justified as diplomacy.
Disputes over the presidential plane, known as Code One, stretch back further, with the need to replace aging planes and upgrade onboard facilities.
The conservative Grand National Party, a predecessor of the PPP, opposed a proposal to buy a new jet under President Roh Moo-hyun in 2006, citing the needs of impoverished households.
When Roh’s conservative successor Lee Myung-bak pursued a purchase in 2008, it stirred objections from the main opposition Democratic Party, a predecessor of the DPK.
Under Moon in 2018, DPK lawmakers argued that buying a new plane could improve safety and reduce long-term costs compared with leasing.
The government ultimately continued leasing, and the Boeing 747-8i introduced in January 2022 subsequently served Yoon and remains in use under Lee.
“The Code One lease shows how investments made by one administration can serve several successors. Nevertheless, parties often oppose such spending for political advantage rather than assess its long-term value,” a political commentator said on condition of anonymity.