"It's so cold." Hong Joon-pyo, who saw the inauguration ceremony at the U.S. Hotel...a failed indoor invitation

ⓒYTN

Daegu Mayor Hong Joon Pyo, who visited Washington to attend Donald Trump's inauguration ceremony for the 47th U.S. president, said he watched the inauguration ceremony on TV in his hotel room.Mayor Hong said on Facebook on the 21st,

20,000 people were invited to the inauguration arena event, but when I went there, I gave up on attending and returned to the hotel to watch the inauguration ceremony through a large screen.

"We also went to the Commanders in Chief Ball event, which is centered on security officials, one of the inauguration dinner events, but I don't dare to attend after seeing the endless lines even on this cold day," he said. "Americans are very enthusiastic. Because they are a small number of invited among billions of people around the world, they all seem to be proud, so everyone is happy regardless of this cold weather."

"Today's weather in Washington is very cold due to a sudden cold wave," he said. "I'll wait a little longer and decide whether to attend (such as a chief ball event)."

The inauguration, which was scheduled to take place outside the U.S. Capitol, was distributed by the U.S. Congress to 220,000 general tickets, but the cold weather forecast changed the venue inside the Capitol three days ago, allowing only 600 people to enter the indoor inauguration.

Instead, a large TV electronic board was installed at a nearby 20,000-person gym facility to broadcast the inauguration screen. Mayor Hong was not invited to the indoor inauguration event, so he seemed to have given up on this, even after trying to watch it at the gym.

Ambassador Cho Hyun-dong to the U.S., who went as a government representative, is the only South Korean official who entered the indoor inauguration ceremony.