Japan Denies Visit Of President Moon Jae-in, South Korea Holds Troops On Dokdo Island

Illustration of South Korean military exercises on Dokdo Island. (Wikimedia Commons/대한민국 Republic of Korea Armed Forces)

JAKARTA - Japanese authorities have denied a planned visit by South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who is said to be holding talks with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.

This news comes in the midst of warming relations between the two countries over the past few years, including trade disputes, wartime history, lawsuits for compensation for victims of forced labor, to the claims of South Korea's version of Dokdo Island and Japan's version of Takeshima Island.

The Yomiuri daily reported Tuesday that President Moon will visit Japan for the Olympics from July 23 to August 8, as South Korea's Blue House (presidential office) hopes for a meeting with PM Suga, without citing sources cited.

"There is no truth in the report," Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said at a press conference, declining to comment further.

Meanwhile, a South Korean government official said he hoped for a successful Tokyo Olympics without commenting on whether President Moon Jae-in would visit Tokyo or not.

Separately, South Korea's military began annual drills on Tuesday in the Dokdo Island region, days after planned talks between the leaders of the two countries were called off amid a row over the Olympic map.

The island that is being contested by South Korea and Japan is located halfway between the two countries in the Sea of Japan or also known as the East Sea.

Marine, air and coast guard troops will join the drills, which will mostly be staged at sea, with minimal contact between the forces involved and the coronavirus, South Korea's defense ministry said.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency earlier reported that Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga took issue with the drills, thus canceling planned talks with President Moon Jae-in at the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Britain at the end of yesterday.

"The exercise is held regularly every year with the aim of defending our territory," said a South Korean Defense Ministry official.

Meanwhile, Katsunobu Kato said Tokyo had lodged a protest with Seoul over the exercise, saying the islands were Japanese territory under history and international law.

"This kind of exercise is unacceptable and very regrettable. We have protested to the South Korean government and called for the exercises to be stopped," he said.