Justice Party Leader Explains Background of Attending President's New Year Event
"It's Very Ambiguous Whether It Was an Official Invitation or Not"
[Asia Economy Reporter Ryu Jeong-min] "Honestly, I was really troubled for several days after being invited to the New Year's event."
Lee Jeong-mi, leader of the Justice Party, said this while explaining her attendance as the only opposition figure at the '2023 New Year's Greeting Meeting' held at the Blue House State Guest House on the 2nd.
In an interview with KBS Radio's 'Joo Jin-woo's Live' on the 3rd, Lee claimed, "First of all, there was a problem with the invitation method." The invitation notice for the New Year's Greeting Meeting, attended by President Yoon Seok-yeol, was sent on the 22nd of last month by an administrative official from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, who asked for the Justice Party Secretariat's email address and then sent the email.
Lee stated, "Looking at the email content, it was quite ambiguous whether the Blue House was officially inviting opposition party leaders or not."
Lee said, "It is an event inviting about 150 cabinet members, ruling party, and opposition party lawmakers for the New Year. But it was very confusing whether they were definitely inviting me as an opposition leader or not, so I told them to check with the Presidential Secretariat."
Lee added, "Then the response from the Presidential Office was, 'Since the Ministry of the Interior and Safety is the organizing department of this event, we don't know well.'"
Lee explained, "So I was really troubled, wondering if this event was going to proceed without even the Presidential Office knowing that I was invited."
Lee said, "Anyway, there was a situation I couldn't understand where communication between the Presidential Office and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety was not going well."
Lee said, "After worrying for several days, I thought that since it was the President's official New Year's event and no one else was calling me separately, I should at least go and meet face-to-face to talk."
Lee explained, "But then I saw that the event program did not allow time for me to speak. There was an official greeting from the President, brief remarks from the five key figures, and then it ended. So I stayed up all night the night before and wrote a handwritten letter."
Regarding the absence of Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, Lee said, "Honestly, I was standing there like a lonely island at that event. I was the only one from the opposition party who attended," adding, "Most of the People Power Party lawmakers were all there, along with the cabinet members. I wondered how it would have been if Leader Lee Jae-myung had come with us."
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