Presidential Office Says No Decision Made on Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba's January Visit to Korea

President Yoon Suk-yeol shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru before their summit meeting at a hotel in Lima, Peru, on the 16th (local time). Photo by Yonhap News

The Presidential Office stated that there is "no fixed plan" regarding Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's reported visit to South Korea in January next year, as reported by Japanese media.

In a press release on the same day, the Presidential Office explained, "The two leaders have agreed to continue shuttle diplomacy."

The Japanese Yomiuri Shimbun reported, citing multiple government officials, that Prime Minister Ishiba is coordinating a visit to South Korea in January next year to hold a summit with President Yoon Suk-yeol.

The newspaper noted that if the visit is confirmed, South Korea will be the first country visited by Prime Minister Ishiba for bilateral diplomatic purposes since his inauguration.

Previously, President Yoon and Prime Minister Ishiba held summits in early last month in Laos, where the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) summit was held, and in mid-month in Peru, where the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit took place.

The last time a Japanese prime minister visited South Korea was in September, when then-Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who was about to retire, visited and held talks with President Yoon.

Amid recent tensions in South Korea-Japan relations due to conflicts related to the Sado mine memorial ceremony, attention is focused on whether a South Korea-Japan summit can take place.

Japan agreed to hold a memorial ceremony to honor Korean victims who were forcibly conscripted to the Sado mine during the Japanese colonial period as part of the process to register the Sado mine as a World Heritage site. However, Japan responded insincerely by sending Akiko Ikuina, a political official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with a history of visiting the Yasukuni Shrine.

In response, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the families of the forced labor victims did not attend the memorial ceremony on the 24th.

However, our government has decided to handle this issue separately from other matters so that it does not negatively affect South Korea-Japan cooperation.