”Who is that person next to Trump? ... Dr. Lee has returned unchanged” (South Korea)

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung and US President Donald Trump held their first summit meeting in the Oval Office of the White House on the 25th (local time).
At the event, a familiar face caught my eye: Lee Yeon Hee-yang, director of the U.S. State Department, who translated President Trump's remarks into Korean.
On that day, the South Korean side announced that he was a former member of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and "President Lee's number one interpreter."
On the US side, Director General Lee Yeon Hee, who boasts a long history of experience, appeared on the stage.
The veteran director, Lee, hesitantly took down President Trump's lengthy remarks on a notepad.
Director Lee, known as "Dr. Lee" within the State Department, was the first to translate the speech into Korean at the U.S.-North Korea summit held in Singapore in June 2018.
He was Trump's interpreter and was called "Trump's mouth and ears." He was also involved in President Barack Obama's visit to Korea in 2014 and President Joe Biden's visit to Korea in 2022.
He has been active in major diplomatic fora for U.S. presidents, both conservative and progressive, including the summit meeting between President Lee and the United States. The current affairs weekly magazine Time described Director Lee as an "unsung hero."
After graduating from Yonsei University's vocal music department, Director Lee became a full-time housewife after getting married, but in 1989, at the urging of a friend, she passed the entrance exam for the Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.
His abilities were recognized, and he was appointed as a professor at the Monterey Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation in 1996. Director Lee began working as a Korean interpreter for the US State Department in the early 2000s. He returned to Korea in 2004.
She returned to the United States and briefly taught at the Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation at Ewha Womans University, but has been working as an interpreter ever since returning to the State Department in 2009.
Those who have worked with Director Lee unanimously praise her interpreting skills.
Secretary of State Tony Blinken said in 2022 that Lee is "an essential member of the foreign affairs translation team, and we couldn't do the job without her and her team. We admire her.
"It's not just the meaning of the words, but also the feel and emphasis of the words," he said.