WASHINGTON — South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol was invited Thursday to address a joint meeting of Congress later this month — despite profanely ridiculing US legislators into a hot mic last year.
The top Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate formally asked Yoon to speak to lawmakers on April 27 in honor of seven decades of friendship between Washington and Seoul.
Yoon, 62, made headlines during a September visit to New York City when he referred to members of Congress as either “idiots” or “f–kers,” depending on the translation.
Yoon told aides as he left a photo op that Biden’s pledge of $6 billion to global health projects might get rejected by Congress.
According to a translation by the Washington Post, Yoon said, “It would be so humiliating for Biden if these idiots don’t pass it in Congress.”
A different translation by the South China Morning Post quoted Yoon as saying, “How could Biden not lose damn face if these f–kers do not pass it in Congress?”
Yoon, who frequently mixes English phrases into his own domestic remarks, took office last May and is considered to be a political conservative. He previously served as the nation’s top prosecutor.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) extended the invite to Yoon.
“On behalf of the bipartisan leadership of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate, it is our honor to invite you to address a Joint Meeting of Congress on Thursday, April 27, 2023,” they said.
“With this year marking the 70th anniversary of the alliance between our two countries, it is an especially important time to reflect on the achievements of our partnership and to reaffirm our shared commitment to democracy, economic prosperity, and global peace.”
The invite added: “We would be honored to host you at this historic event. Thank you for your leadership and your commitment to reinforcing the bonds between our two great nations. We look forward to welcoming you to the United States soon.”
It’s uncommon for foreign leaders to address Congress, though six other South Korean presidents have done so beginning with Syngman Rhee in 1954, a year after the signing of the Korean War armistice. About 36,000 American soldiers died fighting off an invasion by Communist North Korea.
In the past decade, only 10 foreign leaders have addressed Congress, including Ukrainian Presidents Volodymyr Zelensky and Petro Poroshenko, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, then-Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Pope Francis, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, French President Emmanuel Macron, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
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