US-Korea Summit, First Working-Level Meeting Concluded... "Summit Schedule Undecided"

Kwon Hyuk-ki "Discussed for about 40 minutes"
"Cannot disclose detailed content"

President Yoon Suk-yeol's proposed first working-level discussion for a summit meeting with Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, took place on the 19th.

On the 23rd, Kwon Hyuk-ki, Director of Political Planning at the Democratic Party leader's office, stated, "At 1:58 PM today, I met at the National Assembly with Hong Cheol-ho, Senior Secretary for Political Affairs, Cha Soon-oh, Political Secretary, and Chun Jun-ho, Chief Secretary of the Democratic Party leader's office, for a preparatory meeting." He added, "The meeting lasted about 40 minutes, during which we discussed addressing urgent livelihood issues with appropriate policies and agreed to candidly include important national affairs as agenda items for the main summit."

President Yoon Suk-yeol is personally introducing Hong Cheol-ho, the new Senior Secretary for Political Affairs of the Presidential Office, at the Yongsan Presidential Office building in Seoul on the 22nd.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

Director Kwon said, "The schedule for the summit will be discussed again later." He also mentioned, "The date for the second preparatory meeting is undecided," adding, "The Democratic Party and the Presidential Office will review their respective preparations and then reconvene." The Presidential Office had previously unilaterally canceled the preliminary working-level meeting scheduled for the previous day due to the appointment of the Senior Secretary for Political Affairs. The working-level teams rescheduled the meeting within a day and reported the discussions as above.

Director Kwon did not disclose specific details of the meeting. When asked by reporters immediately after the meeting, he said, "Due to the nature of the preparatory meeting, I cannot provide detailed information about the agenda," and did not respond to questions about which livelihood issues were discussed. However, he added, "The atmosphere was serious," and "It was not a place to debate pros and cons or to decide yes or no."