Some senior diplomats have found themselves in the center of controversy after being spotted taking selfies the same day a protocol error was made during President Park Geun-hye’s participation at the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington last week.

Recent video footage captured the scene where U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon came to see the president before the conference’s plenary session kicked off last Friday. As the two shook hands and exchanged conversation, Choi Jong-moon, deputy minister for multilateral and global affairs at the Foreign Ministry, took a snapshot of Kim Kyou-hyun, senior secretary on foreign affairs and security at Cheong Wa Dae, and himself with the leaders in the background.

While the diplomats seemingly had enough time to take the pictures, a diplomatic blunder took place afterwards, as Park missed an earlier-than-planned group photo session during which she was supposed to stand next to U.S. President Barack Obama, Chinese President Xi Jinping and other world leaders in the front row, as the host of the summit’s 2012 edition in Seoul.

She was believed to be in the restroom at the moment and had swiftly returned for another photo with Obama and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, officials said, but the diplomatic team took flak for failing to keep up with the constantly changing schedule during the multiparty summit.

(khnews@heraldcorp.com)