Yun had just met with Biden at the Global Fund’s Seventh Replenishment Conference in New York. There, Biden had pledged $6 billion from the United States to the public health campaign, which is fighting AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria worldwide. Funding would require congressional approval. “It would be so humiliating for Biden if these idiots don’t pass it in Congress,” Yoon was heard telling a group of aides as they left the event. Video of the exchange quickly went viral in South Korea, where Yoon took office in May. Representatives for Yun and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday. Park Hong-keun, the leader of South Korea’s opposition Democratic Party, criticized Yoon’s “Byzantine language that tarnishes the US Congress” as a “major diplomatic accident”, Agence France-Presse reported. Yun and Biden were both in New York for the UN General Assembly, where they held discussions on the sidelines on Wednesday. “The two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen the US-ROK alliance and ensure close cooperation in countering the threat posed by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK),” the White House said in a readout of their meeting. “The Presidents also discussed our continued cooperation on a wide range of priority issues, including supply chain resilience, critical technologies, economic and energy security, global health and climate change.” Min Joo Kim contributed to this report.
