KOR-US Tariff Negotiations Fail... Song Eon-seok Criticizes, "Is He Really a President Who Was Prepared?"

With the sudden postponement of the '2+2 Trade Talks' between the Korean and American finance and trade ministers due to notification from the United States, the opposition People Power Party criticized, saying, "Although it was claimed to be a prepared presidency, the government is not prepared at all."

Song Eon-seok, acting leader and floor leader of the People Power Party, appeared on SBS radio's 'Political Show' on the 25th and said, "The previous administration kept impeaching both the PM and Deputy PM, making it impossible to carry out negotiations properly and just passing them off to the next government."

He added, "In reality, after taking over the government, there was no preparation at all, so from our perspective, there is regret and doubt whether the president is really someone who was ready."

He continued, "(President Lee Jae-myung) went to attend the G7 summit but couldn't meet Trump, the US president. After that, there was the NATO summit," and "So we kept saying he should go to the NATO summit to meet Trump, but he ended up not going to NATO either."

Chairman Song requested that President Lee meet former US President Donald Trump as soon as possible. He said, "Summit-level diplomacy is extremely important; take Japan, for example, Prime Minister Ishiba met with Trump right away," emphasizing, "For the sake of the national interest and people's livelihoods, President Lee should quickly go to the United States and meet President Trump."

He further explained, "From an opposition standpoint, for the sake of our national interest and people's lives, the president needs to go to the US quickly and meet with Trump, and now is not the time to be considering China's Victory Day."

Chairman Song commented on Trump's announcement of applying a 25% reciprocal tariff to Korea, stating, "It was reported that Japan agreed at 15% and that the EU also came close to 15%. For Korea too, 15% is the absolute bottom line. If we fail to keep it at 15% and reach 16~17%, it will appear as if the negotiations have failed."

Korea and the United States were originally scheduled to hold the 2+2 trade talks that day, but the United States abruptly called off the meeting citing Vesent, the US Treasury Secretary's, urgent schedule. This happened one hour before Yoon-cheol Koo, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, was set to board a flight to the US. There's only a week left until August 1, when a 25% reciprocal tariff will be imposed.

Lee Seul-gi, Hankyung.com reporter seulkee@hankyung.com