South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was heard calling US lawmakers “idiots,” saying it will be “humiliating” for President Joe Biden if they don’t approve international well being funding, based on a number of stories.
Yoon and Biden met at a convention for the Global Fund in New York on Wednesday. Biden has pledged $6 billion from the United States to the group’s efforts to struggle AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. The funding requires approval from Congress.
“It would be so humiliating for Biden if these idiots don’t pass it in Congress,” Yoon was heard saying as he and a bunch left the Global Fund occasion, as translated by a number of retailers.
Video of the feedback rapidly went viral on-line. Some translations of Yoon’s feedback use an expletive as an alternative of the phrase “idiots.”
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South Korea’s presidential workplace on Thursday stated Yoon’s feedback weren’t targeted on the US, based on a number of stories. A spokesperson for the president’s workplace, Kim Eun-hye, stated Yoon didn’t say Biden, however a phrase that sounds comparable in Korean. She additionally stated he was referring to South Korean lawmakers, not US members of Congress.
The sizzling mic second didn’t go unnoticed by US lawmakers, nonetheless. US Rep. Peter Meijer, R-Mich., tweeted on Thursday “hey, only we get to say that.”
USA TODAY has reached out to the White House for remark.
The White House this week stated Biden and Yoon met on the United Nations General Assembly in New York, discussing cooperation between the US and South Korea and a spread of different matters.