Rep. Bae Hyeon-jin of the People Power Party 〈Photo=Yonhap News〉
Rep. Bae Hyeon-jin of the People Power Party commented “interesting” regarding the depiction in former President Moon Jae-in’s memoir that his wife, First Lady Kim Jung-sook’s visit to India was a ‘solo diplomacy’ trip.
Yesterday (the 18th), Rep. Bae mentioned President Moon’s memoir on his Facebook.
In President Moon’s memoir, titled ‘From the Periphery to the Core’, it mentions First Lady Kim’s visit to the Taj Mahal in India in 2018 as the “first solo diplomacy”.
President Moon stated, “At that time, Prime Minister Modi of India explained the plan to establish a grand memorial park to me and invited me to visit again when the park opened” and “Later, when the memorial park was opened, I received an invitation from the Indian government to visit again, but it was difficult for me to go to India again.”
President Moon added, “So, I pretended to be sick, and the Indian side said, ‘In that case, please send your wife instead’ as an invitation,” emphasizing, “The reason I am mentioning this story openly is because there are people who maliciously distort it as if my wife took a leisure trip using national funds.”
Former President Moon Jae-in’s memoir 〈Photo=Kim Youngsa〉
Regarding this, Rep. Bae pointed out, “I confirmed the fact of ‘self-invitation’ where the Ministry of Foreign Affairs initiated to invite First Lady Kim Jung-sook to India through an audit of national affairs.”
He also criticized, “It was revealed that the presidential banner that cannot be displayed unless the president boards, was boldly displayed on Presidential Plane No. 1, even though the president did not board,” and added, “Moreover, they visited the Taj Mahal, which was not on the itinerary.”
He then questioned, “If they had engaged in ‘solo diplomacy’ at the Taj Mahal, why did they not note the visit date in the Foreign Ministry report?” and also asked, “Why did they not include it in the itinerary?”
Additionally, he said, “How dare you report to the people so foolishly,” and “Revisit the news and YouTube videos from that time.”