Why South Korean President Yeol is taking up golf after a decade

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is taking up golf after years. But why?

As Donald Trump prepares to take over the White House for a second term, leaders across the world are gearing up as well. But going a step further is Yeol who has taken up the game that Trump loves to play to ensure good diplomatic ties.

The 63-year-old has stayed away from the game for close to a decade but is dusting off his clubs now that Trump is set to be back in the White House, an official told AFP.

“In order for smooth conversations” President Yoon “needs to hit the ball properly”, a president’s office official said in a background briefing earlier this week. Interestingly, Yoon ‘hit the turf’ regularly in the ’90s, reported the daily Kyeongin Ilbo while citing a playing partner.

More from Explainers

How ChatGPT is becoming everyone’s BFF and why that’s dangerous This Week in Explainers: How recovering from Gen-Z protests is a Himalayan task for Nepal

Last week during a press conference, Yoon said that people had told him he would have “good chemistry” with Trump, noting both had first been elected to top office as political novices.

Trump’s love affair with golf

Trump is a golf fanatic and owns several courses in the United States as well as other nations. He openly admits to being a golf enthusiast, often boasting about his skills on social media and claiming to have a single-digit handicap.

During his first term as president, Trump played an estimated 261 rounds of golf or a round every 5.6 days, The Guardian reported quoting a 2021 Washington Post article.

Leaders golf ties with Trump

During Trump’s first term, several world leaders tried to create personal bonds with him to strengthen diplomatic ties within concerned nations. One of them was the late former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who played with Trump on multiple occasions and is reported to have gifted him a set of gold-plated clubs.

Also Read: Watch | How many times Indonesia’s Prabowo calls Trump ‘sir’, netizens wonder

Trump’s threat to make Asian countries pay

Despite golf diplomacy, Trump’s repeated vows to make Asian security allies pay a larger share of the financial burden for their protection, and his threats of tariffs to fix the US trade deficit, have sparked consternation in Seoul.

Seoul’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a pamphlet on X on Tuesday titled, “Korea Matters to the US”, which featured detailed statistics on South Korea’s economic contributions to its ally.

Editor’s Picks

1

Trump picks Musk, Ramaswamy to lead Department of Government Efficiency: What is it? 2

Could Trump's return be tougher on Russia than expected? 3 reasons Ukraine may benefit

Also read: Trump picks Musk, Ramaswamy to lead Department of Government Efficiency: What is it?

In one section, it boasts that South Korea has created 470,000 jobs in the US, providing “the highest annual salary” among Asian foreign direct investors in the country. South Korea is also a “key importer of US weapons”, it said and spends “2.8 of GDP” on defence.

With inputs from agencies