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DP and PPP blame each other for Trump's threat to raise auto tariffs for Korea

Published: 27 Jan. 2026, 15:30 Updated: 27 Jan. 2026, 18:54

Song Eon-seog, the People Power Party floor leader, speaks at a party meeting at the National Assembly in western Seoul on Jan. 27. [LIM HYUN-DONG]

Korea’s two largest political parties have been busy blaming one another after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to raise auto tariffs for the country.

The conservative People Power Party (PPP) claims that the administration and ruling Democratic Party (DP) ignored the National Assembly’s ratification process, while the DP argues that it was the PPP that delayed the approval.

“The Korea-U.S. tariff agreement that the Lee Jae Myung administration so proudly praised as an achievement has now been revealed to have been built on a shaky foundation,” said PPP floor leader Song Eon-seog during a party strategy meeting on Tuesday morning. “All responsibility lies with President Lee and his administration for concluding a major trade deal requiring ratification without ever pursuing that process.”

“Our party repeatedly emphasized that National Assembly approval should come first,” continued Song. After the DP proposed the special act on U.S. investment at the end of November 2025, the government never once approached the Assembly to request its cooperation, according to Song.

The bill outlines legal mechanisms for implementing U.S.-bound investments, including the creation of a Korea-U.S. strategic investment fund. It was submitted on Nov. 26 last year and remains in committee review, not yet assigned to a subcommittee for deliberation.

“The agreement signed last year was clearly designed to retroactively reduce tariffs once it was submitted to the Assembly as a bill,” Song said. “Yet the government and ruling party insisted ratification was unnecessary.”

U.S. President Donald Trump visits a Ford production center in Dearborn, Michigan, on Jan. 13. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Other PPP figures also harshly criticized the ruling party. PPP secretary general Jung Hee-yong called Trump's threat a “bomb that resulted from the DP and the government's ignorance,” while the party's deputy spokesperson Choi Su-jin decried it as “irresponsible backroom diplomacy by the administration and ruling party.”

Lee Jun-seok, the leader of the Reform Party, added to the backlash.

“The government and ruling party still haven’t clarified whether this agreement is a treaty requiring parliamentary ratification or just a memorandum of understanding,” he said. “Trade negotiations with the United States cannot devolve into a performative ‘hotel diplomacy’ show.”

“Hotel diplomacy” is a pejorative term derived from the concept of a “hotel economy,” in which interactions are superficial, transient and focused on appearance rather than substance.

Reform Party Lee Jun-seok, right, speaks at a party meeting at the National Assembly in western Seoul on Jan. 26. [NEWS1]

Deputy Prime Minister Koo Yun-cheol speaks at a ministerial meeting at the Seoul Government Complex in Jongno District, central Seoul, on Jan. 26. [NEWS1]

The DP, on the other hand, countered that the PPP was to blame for the delay.

“The PPP turned the need for ratification into a political issue, which is why the agreement wasn’t approved in December [2025],” said one DP official on the National Assembly’s Strategy and Finance Committee. Another committee member added, “Isn’t the committee chair from the PPP? It’s their fault.”

Some DP leaders expressed unease, noting that “there wasn’t a sense of urgency since the tariffs were already in effect.” In fact, the investment act “wasn’t considered an urgent legislative matter last year” when submitted by former floor leader Kim Byung-kee, according to a DP floor official.

Deputy Prime Minister Koo Yun-cheol is scheduled to meet with Strategy and Finance Committee Chair Lim Lee-ja, DP committee member Jung Tae-ho and PPP committee member Park Soo-young on Tuesday afternoon to discuss responses to the tariff hike. A PPP committee official commented that Koo’s visit “was already planned.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY YANG SU-MIN, LEE CHAN-KYU [[email protected]]