US Secretary of State Blincoln’s’Sundubu House Visit’ Why couldn’t he keep his promise five years ago?

On the 17th, U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blincoln was unable to visit the Sundubu restaurant in Jongno-gu, Seoul, which he was planning to visit five years ago due to the prevention of Corona 19.

Secretary Blincoln visited Korea in October 2016 as Deputy Secretary of State for the administration of Barack Obama. At the time, under the guidance of the former U.S. Ambassador to Korea, Mark Rippert had dinner at this restaurant with soft tofu stew and jeon.

This is a well-known place among diplomats as a favorite place for former Ambassador Lipert and officials of the US Embassy in Korea. It has a high reputation as a restaurant enough to appear on major broadcasts. Sundubu-jjigae is known to be quite spicy, but Minister Blincoln is said to have enjoyed eating here very much.

After the meal, Secretary Blincoln left a handwritten message and photo saying, “Thank you for the great meal. It was very delicious. I will be back next time.” The message and pictures of Minister Blincoln’s meal are still hung at the front door of the restaurant and behind the counter.

Blincoln, who was promoted to Secretary of State in the administration of Joe Biden, returned to Korea after five years on the 17th. However, it is known that the promise of returning to the restaurant must be made next. A restaurant official said, “There are no reservations made separately from Minister Blincoln’s party,” and “I heard that it is difficult to visit the restaurant this time because of Corona 19.”

On that day, after arriving at the US military base in Osan, Secretary Blincoln went up to Seoul to hold a meeting with Foreign Minister Eui-yong Jeong and the US-Korea foreign ministers. On the 18th, after the Korea-US diplomatic and defense `2+2` talks, they will go to the Korea-US defense cost share agreement and attend a ceremony. On this afternoon, after preventing President Moon Jae-in at the Blue House, he plans to go to Alaska, USA to hold high-level talks with China.

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