Ahn Cheol-soo, “President Yoon should have returned after the NATO summit and overseen to the flood sites”

People Power Party lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo. Yonhap News

On July 18, People Power Party (PPP) legislator Ahn Cheol-soo spoke on President Yoon Suk-yeol’s trip to Europe and said, “At times like these, I wonder what it would have been like if he had returned just after attending the NATO summit, resolved the problem (flooding at home), and made a surprise visit to Ukraine secretly after the rains ended.” President Yoon visited Ukraine on July 15, after his tour of Lithuania and Poland from July 10, while at home, a large number of deaths occurred due to the heavy downpour, which began on July 11.

The PPP lawmaker appeared on Kim Tae-hyun’s Political Show on SBS radio Tuesday and said, “I think it was right to visit Ukraine. I actually think the trip was a little late.” Yet, he also criticized the president’s late return home saying, “If an incident involving a single death occurs, Western leaders immediately cut their schedules short, return home and do their utmost to solve that problem. The sight of this gives people a sense of security.” He claimed that protecting the lives and safety of the people was the most important duty for the state to exist and mentioned how in the West, the president personally resolves problems when the life of a single citizen is on the line or when one citizen is kidnapped.

Previously on Monday, Park Dae-chul, head of policy in the People Power Party defended President Yoon on social media writing, “The president inspected the situation in a video conference with the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters even on the train heading for Ukraine and gave instructions to use all available resources.” He added, “That would be the role of the president befitting a global age.”

Legislator Ahn described the “syrup benefits” remark by the PPP leadership as an “emotional” comment. He said, “We need to fix the problem of people who really need them (unemployment benefits) not being able to receive them, since it is unfair.” At the same time, he said, “When making changes, we need to design a highly elaborate plan and then make refined comments without any emotions for the changes to move forward.” He added, “It is very regrettable that such an emotional remark was made at a time when a policy agenda should gain support and momentum.”