President Yoon Suk Yeol attends the 2024 National Saemaeul Leaders' Conference at Kintex in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province on Nov. 5. (Yonhap)
When reports surfaced that President Yoon Suk Yeol had played golf at a course in northeastern Seoul on Saturday, opposition politicians saw it as an opportunity to pounce.
Playing golf has become close to a taboo for politicians in Korea. The exclusive and expensive nature of the sport here means that it is seen as an elite indulgence, rather than a way to unwind or a pastime for ordinary people.
As such, public officials who golf are often accused of being out of touch with the general public and neglecting their responsibilities by engaging in luxury pursuits.
Yoon's office claimed his golfing is connected to his role as president, saying Tuesday that he has been practicing the sport to prepare for "golf diplomacy" with President-elect Donald Trump.
According to a news report by local media outlet Nocut News, Yoon played golf for four hours Saturday in the afternoon at the military-owned Taereung Country Club in Nowon-gu, Seoul.
"President-elect Trump has honed his golf skills to the extent that golf feels like a way of life to him," a source from Yoon's office said on condition of anonymity Tuesday.
"In order to let the conversations (between Yoon and Trump) go on, Yoon has to know how to hit the ball right, so I thought it’s necessary for Yoon to at least start practicing golf, as he has stopped playing golf for a while," the source continued.
But the same Nocut News report said Yoon had also played golf on Oct. 12 and Nov. 2 -- before Trump was elected on Nov. 5. Yoon's office declined to confirm these dates.
Although Yoon's office might be serious about using golf diplomacy as a way to deal with the transition of power in the US, some experts said this approach might backfire.
Karl Friedhoff, a fellow for Asia Studies at US-based think tank Chicago Council on Global Affairs, said there could have been more subtle, sophisticated ways than blatantly making Yoon's golf outings known to the public just after the US presidential election.
"I think it was a mistake to announce it in this way. It serves no other purpose than to feed Trump’s worst instincts that President Yoon will do anything to please him," Friedhoff said.
"Trump may see these efforts as almost subservient and so President Yoon will have to show that he can also take a tougher line to represent his country's interest," he continued.
The then-US President Donald Trump and the late former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wave on the way to play golf at Mobara Country Club on May 26, 2019 in Chiba, Japan. (Getty Images)
The presidential office earlier said that Yoon's predecessors, including both Park Chung-hee and Roh Moo-hyun, had also golfed at Taereung.
Former conservative President Lee Myung-bak was the first South Korean leader to get an invitation to tee off in the US. He played with his then counterpart, US President George W. Bush, at Camp David in Maryland.
Although Yoon is not the first South Korean president to have golfed, presidents golfing has become associated with neglecting their public duties.
In South Korea, political figures have often faced a barrage of public criticism if they have been found to have been playing golf during a major crisis like a strike, natural disaster or emergency security situation.
Among other examples, then-Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan in 2006 offered to resign after he was met with a slew of public criticism upon playing a round of golf during a railway strike.
In 2007, then-Air Force chief of staff Kim Sung-il had to resign from his post after he teed off during the national mourning period of a noncommissioned officer who had been killed in Afghanistan.
In Yoon's case, his latest golf game came just two days after he had apologized over scandals involving himself and his wife, in a lengthy press conference.
On Tuesday, the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea's spokesperson Rep. Yoon Jong-kun said in a statement that Yoon golfing over the past weekend indicated that his recent public apology was "just for show." The lawmaker also said he was perplexed by the argument that Yoon was practicing golf for diplomacy reasons while placing the domestic issues of such as the government's tax revenue shortfall and consumer price hikes on the back burner.
And the earlier golf games Yoon is alleged to have played took place on Oct. 12 -- a day after North Korea alleged that South Korea had sent a drone to Pyongyang -- and on Nov. 2 -- two days after Yoon's election meddling scandal involving his former political consultant, Myung Tae-kyun, erupted.
President Yoon Suk Yeol swings a baseball bat as he invited children and professional baseball players of San Diego Padres based in San Diego, Calif. in March at a park near Yoon;s office in Seoul. (Presidential office)
Democratic Party Rep. Choo Mi-ae on Monday criticized Yoon at the National Assembly National Defense Committee meeting for allegedly golfing on Nov. 2 at Taereung despite mass protests criticizing the Yoon administration on Nov. 2 and failing to appear in parliament to give his budget speech on Nov. 4 -- which Prime Minister Han Duck-soo read on his behalf.
Rep. Han Min-soo, another spokesperson for the Democratic Party, on Monday slammed Yoon for "handling foreign affairs issues with his hobby."
Public officials golfing has also long been associated with corruption, given the costly nature of the game here, and golf games and memberships have been used as an avenue for bribery. A de facto golf ban for public officials was in place in the first two years of the Park Geun-hye administration.
Meanwhile, Yoon's political opponents suspect that Yoon has been playing long before these recent games.
In a September meeting of the National Assembly's National Defense Committee, Rep. Park Sun-won of the Democratic Party said he had obtained information that Yoon played golf on Aug. 24, Aug. 31 and Sept. 7, without disclosing further details.
Rep. Han Ki-ho of the ruling People Power Party disagreed, arguing that Yoon had taken a break from golf for more than 10 years.
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