Vice speaker critical of ruling party leader's Ukraine visit

People Power Party (PPP) Chairman Lee Jun-seok, right, speaks with PPP Rep. Chung Jin-suk, left, and party's floor leader Kweon Seong-dong, center, as they watch the counting process of June 1 local elections at the National Assembly in Seoul, June 1. Yonhap

By Nam Hyun-woo

Ruling People Power Party (PPP) Chairman Lee Jun-seok and fellow party member, Rep. Chung Jin-suk, exchanged verbal shots as the latter criticized Lee's visit to Ukraine as “politics for his own sake” on Sunday.

Chung wrote on Facebook Monday, “If Lee's Ukraine visit were nothing more than a political activity for his own sake, it wouldn't usually be a problem.” Lee departed for Ukraine on Friday with a plan of meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his stay.

Chung wrote that most of government officials in foreign policy and security and the presidential office disapproved Lee's Ukraine trip, but that Lee insisted on visiting the war-torn country, thus Seoul's foreign ministry accepted the invitation from Lee's counterpart in Ukraine.

Lee is visiting Ukraine as the head of Korea's ruling party, not as a special envoy of the government. Korea's presidential office has been showing a tepid response to Lee's visit, saying he will not be carrying President Yoon's message, apparently to avoid any possible friction in Korea's relations with Russia.

“If the government finds a certain diplomatic matter uncomfortable, a politician of the ruling party should at least be cautious about his or her decision regarding the matter,” Chung wrote.

Chung also wrote that the PPP was able to win most of the June 1 local elections not because the party or Lee were good but because of people's wish for “a stable start of the Yoon administration.” Thus, the top priority right now should be to stabilize the Yoon administration internally, as the election results are attributable to support for President Yoon.

Lee immediately refuted this criticism in his own Facebook posting, saying “the caravan moves on,” referring to the saying, “the dogs bark, but the caravan moves on.”

Hours later, Lee reposted Chung's April 30 posting, in which Chung wrote that Ukrainian Ambassador to Korea Dmytro Ponomarenko and Rep. Andriy Nikolayenko had visited his office and asked for Korea's help for Ukraine.

“Regarding Ukraine, I want them to keep trying from their respective positions at the party level,” Lee wrote, adding, “Rep. Nikolayenko is accompanying me throughout my entire itinerary in Ukraine.”