President Lee Jae Myung (Yonhap)
The offices of South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba have been coordinating to hold a summit in Tokyo later this month, a Japanese report said Saturday.
The meeting is most likely to take place around Aug. 23, Japan’s Asahi Shimbun reported, citing multiple government sources.
When asked about the report, presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said the two sides have been coordinating the summit, but the schedule has not yet been confirmed.
If realized, it would be Lee’s first visit to Japan since taking office in early June and would signal the resumption of “shuttle diplomacy” between the two nations’ leaders.
Lee and Ishiba last met in person on June 17 on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit in Canada, during which they discussed ways to advance bilateral ties and bolster trilateral cooperation with the United States.
Lee is also widely expected to visit Washington for his first summit with US President Donald Trump later this month, though the presidential office has yet to announce the schedule.
“The schedules for a S. Korea-Japan summit and S. Korea-US summit are still being arranged, and have not been confirmed. We will announce them once they are confirmed,” Kang told reporters. (Yonhap)
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (Yonhap)
AloJapan.com