The 'Unexpected Figure' Who Gifted Biden a Writing Instrument Worth 15.6 Million Won, the 'Highest Price'

US Releases 2021 Federal Employee Gift List
Putin Gave High-Value Items Including Pencil Case Over $10,000

Among the gifts received by U.S. President Joe Biden in his first year in office in 2021, a pencil case and writing instruments worth $12,000 (approximately 15.6 million KRW) given by Russian President Vladimir Putin were counted among the most expensive items.

According to foreign media including the AP News and ABC News on the 23rd (local time), the U.S. Department of State released a list of major gifts given by foreign governments to U.S. federal officials in 2021 through a federal government public notice. According to the list, in June of that year, President Putin presented President Biden with a pencil case and writing instruments worth $12,000 during a summit held in Geneva, Switzerland.

Biden (left) and Putin at the summit held in Geneva, Switzerland in 2021.
[Photo by EPA Yonhap News]

The released list includes information such as the donor and recipient, date, item, value, and whether the recipient accepted the gift as is or returned an equivalent value. It shows that President Biden accepted the pencil case and other items from President Putin, citing the reason that "refusal could cause embarrassment to both the donor and the U.S. government." However, despite this high-value gift exchange, relations between the U.S. and Russia deteriorated rapidly immediately after the Geneva meeting, and eight months later, in February of last year, Russia's invasion of Ukraine turned their relationship into one of hostility.

Besides Putin, there was another individual who gave President Biden an expensive gift that year. At the end of June 2021, Ashraf Ghani, former President of Afghanistan, and his wife gifted President Biden and his wife a silk carpet valued at $28,800 (approximately 37.4 million KRW).

At the time, the Afghan government took a pro-Western stance, and senior Afghan officials were found to have presented gifts multiple times to key figures in the U.S. administration, including President Biden. In March of that year, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin received a carpet worth $2,650 (approximately 3.44 million KRW) from former President Ghani, and in June, Abdullah Abdullah, then the second-in-command of the Afghan regime, gave President Biden a jewelry box valued at $1,150 (approximately 1.49 million KRW).

However, despite this gift offensive, the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan in August of that year, the Taliban took control of the government, former President Ghani fled abroad, and the long-standing close relationship between the U.S. and Afghanistan came to an end.

Former President Moon Gifts Biden Items Worth 2.96 Million KRW

The gift list also included gifts delivered by former South Korean President Moon Jae-in to President Biden. According to the public notice, on May 25, 2021, during a summit at the White House, former President Moon presented President Biden with a mother-of-pearl nameplate, a cotton hand towel embroidered with a bouquet of flowers by hand, and a photo album from when First Lady Jill Biden visited Jingwansa Temple in Seoul in 2015. The list stated that the combined value of these gifts was $2,282 (approximately 2.96 million KRW). On the same day, Kim Jung-sook gifted First Lady Jill Biden a flower vase painting worth $1,100 (approximately 1.43 million KRW).

Additionally, on May 21, during his visit to the U.S., former President Moon presented Vice President Kamala Harris with a celadon tea pot valued at $990 (approximately 1.28 million KRW). The list also shows that then-Defense Minister Suh Wook gifted Secretary of Defense Austin a rugby ball worth $1,800 (approximately 2.34 million KRW) on March 18 of that year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.