Seoul's presidential office has assembled a working-level team to prepare for a possible golf outing between President Lee Jae Myung and US President Donald Trump.
The preparations followed Trump's repeated expressions of interest in playing golf with Lee, most recently during their September meeting in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
According to Cheong Wa Dae, the team was formed in late September, shortly after Lee returned from visits to the United States and Mexico.
Cheong Wa Dae previously said Trump raised the idea during the New York meeting, asking after first lady Kim Hea Kyung and suggesting they play golf together.
Lee responded by proposing a round of golf on the occasion of the Group of 20 summit in December, prompting Trump to instruct White House chief of staff Susie Wiles to arrange the outing.
Trump had proposed a golf outing with Lee and his wife on the sidelines of a Group of Seven summit in June. The two leaders reaffirmed their plans to play golf together and agreed to pursue the outing when they met again at a welcome dinner during a NATO summit in July.
The team consists of officials from the presidential protocol secretary's office, the Foreign Ministry, Presidential Security Service, National Security Office and among others.
The working-level team has held at least one in-person meeting and is reviewing Trump's previous golf outings with foreign leaders.
No date has been set, though the Group of 20 summit in Miami in December is being considered as a possible opportunity.
News of the team's formation comes at a politically sensitive moment for Lee, who faces opposition criticism over his own golf outing.
Rep. Joo Jin-woo of the main opposition People Power Party on Sunday accused Lee of playing "imperial golf" on Saturday, the same day a ceiling structure collapsed in a commercial building in Daegu.
In a rare public acknowledgment of the president's private activities, Cheong Wa Dae confirmed that Lee had played golf with his family at Taereung Country Club in Seoul. It said Lee had received reports on the accident while at the golf course and instructed authorities to prioritize rescue operations.
The controversy has revived scrutiny of Lee's own criticism of former President Yoon Suk Yeol, whom the Democratic Party of Korea condemned for playing golf in November 2024, shortly after Trump won a second term as US president.
At the time, Lee, then the Democratic Party leader, criticized Yoon's golf outings as "imperial golf" financed by taxpayers' hard-earned money.
Yoon's office had defended his return to golf as preparation for diplomatic engagement with Trump, who had just won the US presidential election. The Democratic Party dismissed the explanation, asking: "What era is President Yoon Suk Yeol living in, thinking he can conduct diplomacy with the Trump administration through a golf swing?"
Unlike Yoon, Lee received a direct invitation from Trump. Still, the contrast underscores political sensitivities surrounding golf diplomacy in South Korea.
For Trump, golf has long served as a means of cultivating personal relationships with foreign leaders, including former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Finnish President Alexander Stubb.
Those outings have sometimes included professional golfers, prompting speculation that South Korean golf legend Pak Se-ri or Olympic gold medalist Lydia Ko could join a possible Lee-Trump round.
Neither has been confirmed as a participant.
Trump expressed interest in playing with Pak during his 2019 visit to South Korea and previously congratulated Ko on her Olympic victory.
dagyumji@heraldcorp.com
