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Hot Mic Catches South Korean President’s ‘Foul’ Reaction To Biden Speech

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


President Joe Biden and the Democrat-controlled Congress provoked a rude response from South Korea’s president that has caused a major diplomatic row.

On Wednesday, Biden delivered a speech to the United Nations that focused largely on promoting American democratic values while also chastizing Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Following his speech, the president pledged to provide $6 billion in U.S. taxpayer funds during the Global Fund’s Seventh Replenishment Conference that would be used to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria worldwide, but the funding would have to be approved by Congress, the Daily Caller reported.

“With bipartisan support in our Congress, I have pledged to contribute up to $6 billion to that effort,” Biden said. “So I look forward to welcoming a historic round of pledges at the conference resulting in one of the largest global health fundraisers ever held in all of history.”

South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol appeared to take some umbrage at the pledge.

“How could Biden not lose damn face if these f—ers do not pass it in Congress?” Yoon asked his aides on a hot mic Wednesday, Fox News reported, citing the South China Morning Post.

“It would be so humiliating for Biden if these idiots don’t pass it in Congress,” he also said as he left the event, according to the Washington Post.

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The remark appeared to send waves of shock throughout the U.S. and South Korean diplomatic communities.

“He wasn’t speaking publicly on the stage but in passing, and although I don’t know who recorded it and how, I actually think it should be verified,” a South Korean official told reporters afterward, according to Yonhap.

“I think it’s highly inappropriate to draw a link between private remarks and diplomatic accomplishments,” the official added, in response to criticism that the South Korean leader created a diplomatic crisis. “It’s quite regrettable that a diplomatic disaster is being talked about over something like that when he is doing everything to complete a demanding schedule in the national interest of the Republic of Korea.”

Biden noted in his speech that Russia was in violation of the international rule of law over its invasion:

We chose liberty.  We chose sovereignty.  We chose principles to which every party to the United Nations Charter is beholding.  We stood with Ukraine.

Like you, the United States wants this war to end on just terms, on terms we all signed up for: that you cannot seize a nation’s territory by force.  The only country standing in the way of that is Russia. 

So, we — each of us in this body who is determined to uphold the principles and beliefs we pledge to defend as members of the United Nations — must be clear, firm, and unwavering in our resolve. 

Ukraine has the same rights that belong to every sovereign nation.  We will stand in solidarity with Ukraine.  We will stand in solidarity against Russia’s aggression.  Period.

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Now, it’s no secret that in the contest between democracy and autocracy, the United States — and I, as President — champion a vision for our world that is grounded in the values of democracy. 

The United States is determined to defend and strengthen democracy at home and around the world.  Because I believe democracy remains humanity’s greatest instrument to address the challenges of our time. 

We’re working with the G7 and likeminded countries to prove democracies can deliver for their citizens but also deliver for the rest of the world as well. 

But as we meet today, the U.N. Charter — the U.N. Charter’s very basis of a stable and just rule-based order is under attack by those who wish to tear it down or distort it for their own political advantage. 

And the United Nations Charter was not only signed by democracies of the world, it was negotiated among citizens of dozens of nations with vastly different histories and ideologies, united in their commitment to work for peace. 

As President Truman said in 1945, the U.N. Charter — and I quote — is “proof that nations, like men, can state their differences, can face them, and then can find common ground on which to stand.”  End of quote.

That common ground was so straightforward, so basic that, today, 193 of you — 193 member states — have willingly embraced its principles.  And standing up for those principles for the U.N. Charter is the job of every responsible member state. 

I reject the use of violence and war to conquer nations or expand borders through bloodshed.

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