Korea: Ambassador to Brazil responds with ‘room for interpretation’ on egg-summit connection
Ministry of Foreign Affairs "This is not the purpose of acknowledging the relationship between the summit and egg imports."
(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Park Soo-yoon and Kim Ji-heon = On the 15th (local time), independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon refuted President Lee Jae-myung's claim that the government wasted taxpayers' money by importing eggs from Brazil at high prices, saying, "It is an issue that the public has reasonable doubts about."
Representative Han, a member of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee's American Affairs Division, announced this on Facebook, saying that an inquiry was made regarding the import of eggs from Brazil during a government audit held at the Korean Consulate General in São Paulo, Brazil.
One lawmaker claimed, "At the government inspection just held at the Brazilian Embassy in Sao Paulo, I asked intensively whether the Brazilian egg import issue had progressed and been discussed at the Lee Jae-myung-Lula summit. Ambassador Choi Young-han of Brazil gave a clearly different answer from Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Song Mi-ryeong, saying, 'There is room for interpretation regarding the relationship between (Brazil egg imports and) the summit.'
He reminded, “At the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs audit on the 7th, Minister Song answered, ‘Brazilian egg imports are unrelated to the Korea-Brazil summit.’”
He then pointed out, "There is no way the Ambassador to Brazil, who closely followed the Lee Jae-myung-Lula summit on the ground, was unaware of the situation, but unlike Minister Song's remarks, he answered 'there is room for interpretation' regarding the relevance of the summit."
In response, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs countered, saying, "The ambassador's 'room for interpretation' statement was explained in consideration of various circumstances, such as the progress of the existing import procedures and Brazil's promotion of the results of the summit, and is not intended to acknowledge the connection between the summit and egg imports."
At the same time, he argued, "Citing only part of the ambassador's answer and claiming that it contradicts the explanation of the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs is different from the purpose of the entire question and answer and does not correspond to the facts."
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized, “The ambassador clearly answered during the National Assembly inspection that ‘eggs were never mentioned during the summit agenda discussion process.’”
Representative Han also pointed out that on February 23, on the day of the summit meeting between Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who was on a state visit to Korea, Carlos Fabaro, Brazil's Minister of Agriculture and Livestock, "made a public statement in the media to the effect that the Korean President mentioned and confirmed the opening of eggs in Brazil."
At the same time, he said, “The Brazilian Minister of Agriculture or the Korean Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, one of them is lying,” and emphasized, “The ambassador to Brazil, who knows everything, really would have said no (to the National Assembly audit inquiry) if Brazilian egg imports had not been mentioned at the Lee Jae-myung-Lula summit, and he should have done so.”
Regarding this, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs pointed out, "The related comments by the Brazilian Minister of Agriculture were promoted in connection with the results of summit diplomacy on the progress in agricultural discussions during President Lula's visit to Korea in February, and this cannot be seen as meaning that the decision to import eggs was made at the summit."
In another article, a lawmaker repeatedly mentioned the ambassador's "room for interpretation" remarks and claimed, "President Lee has met with President Lula as many as five times since taking office. Today's response from the Ambassador to Brazil has raised reasonable doubts about whether President Lee opened up imports of Brazilian eggs, which are not economical, as a 'gift' for President Lula."
Rep. Song Seok-jun of the People Power Party, chairman of the National Assembly Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, also criticized in a Facebook post, "No matter how much we try to diversify our egg supply sources in case of emergency, if we spend 1.6 billion won, the price of eggs is 200 million won, and the incidental costs such as transportation and tariffs are 1.4 billion won, what kind of absurd attempt is this?" He added, "Diversification of supply lines should be expanded in the order of highest feasibility. How can you think of importing eggs from Brazil, the farthest country from Korea?"
