The Minjoo National Innovation Council (Innovation Council), an outside-the-Assembly organization that includes a large number of incumbent lawmakers in the pro-Lee Jae-myung camp, on the 29th criticized the South Korea-U.S. tariff talks, saying, "Public anger is exploding over reports that the Donald Trump administration demanded $350 billion upfront, and even $550 billion."
Issuing a commentary that day, the Innovation Council said, "This is theft wearing the mask of an alliance, and a shameless atrocity seeking to reduce the Republic of Korea to an economic colony."
They said, "In 1985, the United States forced Japan into the Plaza Accord, which induced a weak dollar and a strong yen under the pretext of improving the trade deficit, and as a result Japan's economy fell into a prolonged slump and had to endure the painful 'lost 30 years,'" adding, "What the United States is demanding now is nothing other than a second Plaza Accord that will shake the Korean economy to its roots and tighten the breath of future generations."
They continued, "We issue a stern warning to the United States. The Republic of Korea will never yield to such unequal blackmail," stressing, "Abandon at once the delusion of plundering the Korean economy. An alliance that has lost respect, equality, and mutual benefit can no longer be an alliance."
In a commentary on the 27th, the Innovation Council also aimed at President Trump, saying, "Even nonsense has its limits," and criticized, "The United States seems to be under the illusion that Korea, its security ally and economic unions partner, is somehow their vassal state."
The Innovation Council is an outside-the-Assembly group that has been called the president's "praetorian guard" for Lee. Currently, 41 incumbent Democratic Party lawmakers also belong to the Innovation Council. As many from the council won nominations in last year's 22nd general election and entered the Assembly, it expanded its influence within the Democratic Party.