President Lee Sends Envoys Yoon Joonbyung and Lee Haemin to Colombia’s Presidential Inauguration

Delivery of Presidential Letter...
"Advancing the Strategic Cooperative Partnership"
Expanding Practical Cooperation in Energy, Infrastructure, and Education Based on the FTA

President Lee Jae-myung will dispatch a presidential special envoy delegation, led by Assemblyman Yoon Junbyung, to the inauguration ceremony of Colombia’s new president, Abelardo de la Espriella, scheduled for August 7, 2026. The plan is to deliver a personal letter from President Lee to coincide with the launch of Colombia’s new administration and to expand the scope of economic cooperation between the two countries, based on the Free Trade Agreement (FTA), into the energy, infrastructure, and education sectors.

President Lee Jae-myung and First Lady Kim Hye-kyung greet the farewell party on August 2 (local time) at German Frankfurt International Airport aboard Air Force One. 2026.8.3 Yonhap News Agency
Photo by Yonhap News Agency

On August 4, Chief Presidential Spokesperson Kang Yoojung announced in a written briefing, "To promote friendly and cooperative relations between the two countries on the occasion of the inauguration of Colombia’s new president and the launch of the new government, Assemblyman Yoon Junbyung and Assemblywoman Lee Haemin will be dispatched as President Lee Jae-myung’s special envoys." Assemblyman Yoon, the vice president of the Korea-Colombia Parliamentary Friendship Association, will serve as the head of the special envoy delegation.

The special delegation will explain the Lee administration’s philosophy and foreign policy to the Colombian side and deliver President Lee’s message—which calls for advancing the strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries—along with his personal letter.

The delegation will also attend the inauguration-related events, including the inauguration reception hosted by the new president, and meet with key officials of Colombia’s incoming government. President-elect de la Espriella, a newcomer to politics with a conservative background and former attorney, won the June 21, 2026 presidential runoff election by a margin of 0.96 percentage points over left-wing candidate Iván Cepeda. His main pledges include strengthening public security, expanding the oil and gas industries, and streamlining government organizations. The inauguration ceremony will be held in Cali, Colombia, on August 7, 2026.

Korea and Colombia established a strategic cooperative partnership in 2011, and the Korea-Colombia FTA came into effect in July 2016. Colombia is also the only Latin American country that participated in the Korean War. Chief Spokesperson Kang stated, "The special envoy delegation will convey our government’s commitment to deepening economic cooperation between Korea and Colombia based on the FTA, and to strengthening substantive cooperation with the new Colombian administration in a variety of fields including energy, infrastructure, and education."

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