Rep. Na Kyung-won of the People Power Party dismissed President Lee Jae Myung's trip to the San Francisco AI Summit as "piggyback diplomacy," saying that he exploited the trip to take political credit for deals secured by Korean companies.
The meeting, hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT, brought together Lee and the chiefs of prominent global technology companies to San Francisco. This included the heads of Anthropic, OpenAI, Nvidia and Broadcom, as well as those of domestic firms such as Samsung Electronics, SK Group, Hyundai Motor Group and Naver.
"The president wants to play the main character, but what he should actually be doing is to just step aside and allow companies to engage in freer and more active collaborative discussions," Na wrote in a Facebook post on Saturday.
Na's criticism appeared to be directed at the way the corporate agreements were announced alongside Lee's schedule and promoted as part of "AI diplomacy."
"Global AI diplomacy? It looks more like a credit-grabbing junket," Na said in the post. "Why is the Presidential Chief of Staff for Policy Kim Yong-beom announcing Samsung's achievements?"
Na further accused Lee of showing conflicting attitudes toward businesses at home and abroad. "He chants 'we are family' with business leaders overseas while burdening citizens and companies at home with all kinds of regulations," she wrote.
Na also called for a fundamental shift in the administration's industrial and labor policies, arguing that diplomatic events alone would not make Korea a central player in the global AI supply chain.
"Companies and shareholders are being pushed down a road to hell, while entrenched militant unions have a silk road laid before them," she wrote.
Na specifically criticized what she characterized as "vote-seeking government intervention" in the semiconductor industry and the Yellow Envelope Act, which expands the scope of companies subject to collective bargaining demands and limits employers' ability to seek damages arising from labor disputes.
She urged the government to immediately scrap what she described as "unjust and economically damaging legislation adopted solely to win votes."
shwang9@heraldcorp.com