When Pelosi last visited South Korea as House Speaker in 2015, she met then president Park Geun-hye and South Korea’s then foreign minister.

But Yoon’s office said this week that he was unable to meet Pelosi because he was on holiday, while foreign minister Park Jin is in Cambodia for a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Yoon, who is believed to be at home in Seoul, instead spoke to Pelosi by phone on Thursday afternoon. When Pelosi arrived in South Korea on Wednesday evening, Yoon was at the theatre and then had dinner with some actors.

“I can’t understand that the parliamentary leader of our ally visited Korea and our president is not meeting her. Being on vacation cannot be an excuse,” Yoo Seung-min, a high-profile former lawmaker from Yoon’s conservative ruling People’s Power party, wrote on Facebook on Thursday.