Some South Korean opposition lawmakers refuse to accept holiday gifts from President Yoon. Is this the right thing to do?

South Korea will be celebrating its mid-autumn festival, Chuseok, on the 17th of this month. In South Korea, like the Japanese custom of giving gifts to people who have helped you out on a daily basis, there is a tradition of giving gifts to people who have helped you out on a daily basis during the mid-autumn celebration.
President Yoon Seok-yeol also sent gift sets to leaders in various fields, but some lawmakers from the opposition Democratic Party and the Fatherland Reform Party refused to accept them.
The regular National Assembly opened. The opening ceremony to mark the beginning of the 22nd National Assembly was also held, but President Yoon did not attend. Opposition lawmakers have stepped up their criticism of this unusual turn of events.
He refused to accept the gift from President Yoon, saying that he could not accept a gift under such circumstances. However, he was surprised at the mid-autumn celebration, which is one of Korea's most representative annual events along with the Lunar New Year.
Is refusing to accept a gift from the president of a country appropriate behavior for a member of parliament elected by voters? Criticism has been raised even among opposition lawmakers.
Mid-autumn celebrations are usually spent with relatives gathering in their hometowns to visit the graves of their ancestors and have a meal.
It is a common sight to see heavy traffic on the highways during the mid-autumn rush hour, and Seoul Station packed with people returning to their hometowns. Every year before the mid-autumn celebration, department stores and supermarkets hold a "mid-autumn celebration gift sales campaign."
There is also demand for high-end gift sets in the high price range, but this year, in response to the recent rise in prices, a variety of "value for money gift sets" were also sold.
President Yoon will also be giving gifts to leaders from various fields to mark the mid-autumn celebrations, following this year's Lunar New Year.
The set included traditional liquor and cosmetics. It also contained a message card from President Yoon, who wrote, "Have a happy holiday with a bright full moon."
Gifts were also given to members of the National Assembly, but some members of opposition parties, such as the Fatherland Reform Party and the Democratic Party of Korea, refused to accept them.
Through NS, he revealed that President Yoon had sent him a gift that he was not happy about, saying, "A little while ago, a gift arrived in my office that I was not happy about." He also said, "He finally sent me the gift that I had said I would not accept."
"I didn't want to see the President's gift so I sent it back right away," he wrote. The regular National Assembly opened on the 2nd of this month in South Korea. The ruling and opposition parties are in fierce conflict, and the current National Assembly is not carrying out any budget review or bill deliberation.
On the 2nd, along with the opening ceremony of the regular Diet session, an opening ceremony was held to announce the start of the 22nd Diet, which is made up of members elected in the general election in April.
The opening ceremony was originally scheduled for July 5th, but time passed without it being held due to conflict between the ruling and opposition parties, and it was finally held on the 2nd, as the "Opening Ceremony of the Regular Diet Session and the Opening Ceremony of the 22nd Diet."
However, President Yoon did not attend the opening ceremony. This was the first time that a sitting president was absent since the establishment of the Sixth Republic, the political system adopted in South Korea in 1988 based on the 1987 Declaration of Democratization.
The fact that President Yoon sent a mid-autumn celebration gift so soon after this unusual incident caused displeasure among opposition lawmakers. Yoon Jong-oh, head of the opposition Progressive Party, and others said, "It's a shame that the National Assembly has sent such a gift."
"We will return the gifts from the president who will not even attend the opening ceremony of the 2020 Olympics," said Kim Ju-Nie, a lawmaker from the Fatherland Reform Party, who posted a photo on social media of her returning the gift to the delivery person.
The move has also drawn criticism from fellow opposition lawmakers. New Future Party leader Chung Byung-hun wrote on social media, "The National Assembly is as fierce as a battlefield, but the president is sending a mid-autumn celebration message to ruling and opposition lawmakers.
Giving gifts on New Year's Day is also an old custom and a virtue," he said, adding, "Cutting off even the most basic level of human affection and using it to incite hardline supporters is one of the few possibilities for cooperation.
"It gives the impression that they are rejecting even the possibility of the gift," he said. What is required of the opposition parties is not a performance of "rejecting the gift," but rather a debate in the Diet.