"Sorry to keep you waiting"... Kishida's story of walking to Yoon's meeting venue

Vehicle traffic appears to be banned due to President Biden's movement
Walked 7 minutes to the meeting venue... Meeting delayed by 18 minutes

On the 16th (local time), at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida arrived 18 minutes late to the seventh Korea-Japan summit meeting of the year, causing the meeting to start late.

President Yoon Suk-yeol, who visited the United States to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit, is embracing Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at a Korea-Japan summit held at a hotel in San Francisco on the 16th (local time).
[Photo by Yonhap News]

On that day, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported that after finishing a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the hotel where he was staying, Prime Minister Kishida boarded a car to move to the Korea-Japan summit venue but encountered a traffic jam for about 20 minutes, unable to move forward or backward.

As a result, Prime Minister Kishida reportedly got out of the car and walked briskly for about 7 minutes with his security personnel (SP) to the hotel where President Yoon Suk-yeol was waiting.

Regarding the meeting starting 18 minutes late, Prime Minister Kishida apologized to President Yoon, saying, "Sorry to keep you waiting. I walked here."

When President Yoon responded, "It's okay," Prime Minister Kishida emphasized, "I walked because I was afraid of being late."

A Japanese government official who walked with Prime Minister Kishida explained, "It seems the roads were closed due to the movement of U.S. President Joe Biden. This was unavoidable."

Meanwhile, according to the Presidential Office, President Yoon held a summit meeting with Prime Minister Kishida from 10:55 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. that day, lasting about 35 minutes.

The two leaders welcomed the positive momentum in Korea-Japan relations through the seven summit meetings held this year alone. They also agreed to work together to achieve tangible results as communication in various fields such as diplomacy, security, and economy has been restored and resumed.