Yesterday South Korea’s National Assembly passed a vote of no confidence in the foreign minister, Park Jin. Such motions are rare in Seoul, but when they happen, the minister in question almost always resigns.

The opposition made Park the fall guy for what its new leader Lee Jae-myung – who narrowly lost March’s presidential election to Yoon – called the “diplomatic disaster” of Yoon’s latest overseas trip. The South Korean public concurs; Yoon’s approval ratings hit an all-time low after he returned.

From the tenor of coverage in much South Korean media, you’d think the trip was an unmitigated fiasco