Presidential Office on Failed Korea-China Summit: "Urgent Issues Resolved... Looking Forward to Next Meeting"

Presidential Office: "US-China and China-Japan Have Issues to Resolve"
Criticism Over Record High Tour Budget, "Stopping Would Harm the Nation"

On the 19th, the Presidential Office stated that the anticipated South Korea-China summit between President Yoon Suk-yeol and Chinese President Xi Jinping, expected to take place during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, did not materialize, but urgent issues have been resolved through high-level bilateral talks between the two countries.

This implies that during the brief multilateral meeting period, both countries were pressed for time as they had to meet with other nations requiring urgent discussions.

A Presidential Office official told reporters at the Yongsan Presidential Office that "Regarding the South Korea-China summit, President Yoon recently met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo held talks with President Xi, so many urgent issues between the two countries have been somewhat resolved," adding, "Although brief, the two leaders met this time, exchanged basic pleasantries, and promised to meet again."

The official continued, "The foreign ministers of both countries are scheduled to meet in the near future, so fundamentally, dialogue and communication are ongoing to address outstanding issues between South Korea and China."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

In response to a reporter's question about the absence of the South Korea-China summit but the occurrence of the US-China and China-Japan summits, the official said, "The 2-night, 3-day APEC schedule was very tight, and there was not much time for bilateral meetings," adding, "Not only APEC but also the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) meetings were held, so there was limited time for bilateral talks."

The official also said, "We briefly held bilateral meetings with Japan, Chile, Peru, and Vietnam, but it was the same for other countries. Basically, time was insufficient," and added, "The US and China had many issues that absolutely needed to be resolved, and there were also urgent issues between Japan and China that had to be addressed."

Meanwhile, in response to opposition parties' criticism that the budget for overseas visits is the largest ever, the official said, "Through past overseas visits, we have attracted a massive investment of 5.4 billion dollars," adding, "If investment attraction activities were to stop just because of some overseas visit expenses, it would actually be a national loss."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.