(Mexico City = Yonhap News) Reporter Lim Hyeong-seop and Seol Seung-eun = President Lee Jae-myung returned to Korea through Seoul Airport on the afternoon of the 27th after completing a 5-night, 7-day visit to the United States and Mexico.
President Lee visited the United States to attend a high-level session of the United Nations General Assembly and delivered a keynote speech at the United Nations General Assembly for the second time since taking office.
In particular, during his visit to the United States, President Lee held his third summit meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump since taking office. At this meeting, based on the joint explanatory material (joint fact sheet) agreed upon at the meeting last November, the will to deepen cooperation on pending issues such as nuclear submarine fuel, enrichment and reprocessing, cooperation in the shipbuilding industry, and transfer of wartime operational control was confirmed.
President Lee then made a state visit to Mexico, the first Korean president in 16 years, to hold a summit meeting and solidify the institutional foundation for expanding economic cooperation and the environment for Korean companies to enter the market.
Upon returning to Korea, President Lee is expected to focus on developing measures to turn the results obtained through the ROK-US summit into concrete results.
Above all, he is expected to receive reports from his staff on a mountain of major domestic and international issues and work hard to come up with solutions.
First of all, there is likely to be deep concern about whether to accept the resignation of Blue House Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik and the reorganization of the Blue House staff, including the successor to the resigned Chief of Staff Kim Yong-beom.
Among the six nominees for the August 30 cabinet reshuffle, the key is to resolve the impact of the 'personnel failure' that arose when Yong Hye-in (Ministry of Gender Equality and Family) and Kim Seung-won (Ministry of Justice) were repeatedly rejected and come up with a reform plan.
It is also a task to quickly find and appoint a new suitable person to the currently vacant position of Minister of Justice.
Other pending tasks include preparations for the opening of the Serious Crimes Investigation Office and the Public Prosecution Office, which are scheduled to be held on the 2nd of next month, and the appointment of Kim Ji-yong, a candidate for the head of the Serious Crimes Investigation Office, who is undergoing additional verification due to opposition from some in the ruling party.
It is also troubling that while President Lee was on a tour, Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae of the Supreme Court announced his rejection of President Lee's request to re-nominate his Supreme Court nominee. While tensions between the Blue House and the judiciary over the issue of re-nomination of Supreme Court justice candidates have reached their peak, the confrontation front has expanded into a battle between the ruling party and the opposition party.
It is also worth noting that the opposition party's offensive against the suspected mine explosion that recently occurred in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) is intensifying. The conservative opposition party claims that the government is delaying the investigation out of concern for North Korea.
In addition to seeking a rebound in approval ratings, the government is also looking for a solution to the divisions across the ruling party.
Pan-government commentator Yoo Si-min criticized President Lee's remarks on prosecutorial reform, saying he "deceived the people," and President Lee made critical remarks targeting writer Yoo at a meeting with Mexican compatriots. This is why interest is also focused on President Lee's response to writer Yoo and his actions to embrace the ruling party.
Follow-up measures on the issue of repatriation of two North Korean prisoners of war to South Korea, announced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, are also matters that require review.
The request for US military intervention in the Strait of Hormuz is also a difficult problem.
The Blue House announced that it is reviewing ways to contribute to freedom of navigation in the strait in accordance with President Lee's principle of 'non-intervention in war', but the decision of the government and President Lee is attracting attention as there is a need to expand cooperation with the United States in the security and shipbuilding fields in the future.
