Busan Mayor Park Heong-joon attends the Consumer Electronics Show 2025 in Las Vegas on Jan. 7, 2025. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
BUSAN, Jan. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — Busan Mayor Park Heong-joon has received an official invitation to the inauguration ceremony of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, slated for Jan. 20, and he is carefully considering whether to fly to Washington, D.C., city officials said Tuesday.
Park has become the first mayor of Busan to be invited to the inauguration of a U.S. president, they said.
Park is pondering the invitation particularly carefully because he returned home less than 10 days ago after a trip to the United States to attend CES 2025 in Las Vegas and visit two American IT companies.
According to the city officials, Park recently received the invitation, and Trump’s ex-campaign manager, Paul Manafort, also asked him to attend the inauguration ceremony just before a recent private visit to South Korea.
A meeting between Manafort and Park was also planned but did not take place due to the mayor’s CES schedule, they added.
They said Park will positively consider attending the inauguration ceremony if he can meet with Trump administration officials who can help Busan’s shipbuilding and other industries.
(Yonhap)
