South Korea President Yoon accused of avoiding Pelosi after her Taiwan visit angers China

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol is being accused of snubbing US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as she arrived in Seoul where she wasn't greeted in person but received a phone call from the Korean leader. As a result, Pelosi was also deterred from making any direct public comments on ties with Beijing or Taiwan to avoid further escalation in regional tensions.

The US House Speaker visited South Korea in 2015 and received a grand welcome, but this time she was only met by National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo and other ruling party members on August 4 as President Yoon Suk-yeol decided to stay back home. The South Korean president's action of avoiding a meeting with the high-profile US official and instead focussing on his 'staycation' has triggered a widespread backlash. The US is also South Korea's biggest trading partner and the absence of the country's president during the arrival of the Democratic leader is being widely criticised. 

South Korean broadcaster TBS reported that the officials at the presidential Blue House said President Yoon's itinerary was planned way ahead of Pelosi's visit. They iterated that her Taiwan visit or stoking tensions with Beijing were not among the reasons that the South Korean leader could not meet her. 

“President Yoon’s vacation schedule and Speaker Pelosi’s visit to the Republic of Korea overlapped, and we did not rearrange our schedule,” the South Korean leader's office said in a statement.

However, President Yoon has affirmed rebuilding security ties with his American allies. But not meeting the senior US official has proven to be detrimental to his already declining popularity. "In the first place, there was no such a plan (for Yoon's meeting Pelosi) as the president's vacation schedule coincides with her visit here," an official told UK's Daily Mail. It was speculated that Yoon's absence was an attempt not to dismantle ties with China as Pelosi's Taiwan visit sparked a strong reaction from the Chinese, and the PLA military increased the military presence around the Taiwan Strait.

Yoon spends time in theatre having dinner with actors during Pelosi's visit

South Korea's Foreign Minister Park Jin who is in Cambodia for a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations said that Yoon spoke to US House Speaker Pelosi by phone on August 4 afternoon. When she arrived, Yoon was in a theatre having dinner with some actors, he told the press. “I can’t understand that the parliamentary leader of our ally visited Korea and our president is not meeting her. Being on vacation cannot be an excuse,” Yoo Seung-min, a former high-profile Korean lawmaker from Yoon's People's Power Party, wrote on Facebook. 

Earlier, Pelosi met Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen in Taipei after she made stops in Singapore and Malaysia where she reaffirmed United States' commitment to safeguarding the island's sovereignty. She is expected to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Friday in Tokyo in the final leg of her trip.

Image: Facebook, AP