Maryland has received 500,000 coronavirus test kits from South Korea. Gov. Larry Hogan said it's all thanks to his wife, Yumi, who was born there.
During a news conference on Monday, Hogan said Yumi — who became a U.S. citizen in 1994 — helped negotiate "Operation Enduring Friendship."
“My wife Yumi, she truly is a champion of this operation," Hogan said.
Maryland's governor said the deal, which entered negotiations nearly a month ago, relied on Hogan and Yumi's "special bond" with the South Korean ambassador to the U.S.
Hogan said the Trump administration "made it clear over and over again they want the states to take the lead, and we have to go out and do it ourselves, and that's exactly what we did."
The $9 million worth of testing supplies from Korea's LabGenomics arrived at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport on Saturday. The Korean Air passenger plane was the first to ever land there.
At the press conference Monday, Hogan also said it was "quite an honor" when South Korean President Moon Jae-in referred to him as the son-in-law of South Korea at a National Governors Association event in February. "But," Hogan said, "I had no idea just how much that would truly come to mean these two very long months later."
"but, I had no idea just how much that would truly come to mean these two very long months later."
