South Korea’s PM won’t visit Tokyo for Olympics

SEOUL — South Korean President Moon Jae-in will not visit Tokyo for the upcoming Olympics, his office said on Monday, scrapping plans for what would have been his first summit with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.

The announcement came after Seoul lodged a protest over a news report on Friday that a senior diplomat at Japan’s embassy in Seoul had said Moon was “masturbating” when describing his efforts to improve relations between the two countries.

“President Moon has decided not to visit Japan,” Moon’s press secretary Park Soo-hyun told a briefing, adding both sides had explored ways to tackle rows over history and boost cooperation but failed to reach agreement.

“The discussions were held amicably and made considerable progress, but it still fell short of being considered as a summit result, and we took other circumstances into account,” Park said, without elaborating. Reuters