hankyoreh

South Korean President Moon Jae-in attends an official reception ceremony at the royal palace in Madrid, Spain, on Tuesday. (provided by the Blue House)

Democratic Party lawmaker Youn Kun-young, who is accompanying South Korean President Moon Jae-in as a special delegation member on his European tour, said Tuesday that Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga appeared to be deliberately avoiding Moon at the recent G7 summit in England.

Youn also shared a bluntly critical message toward Japan, saying that he “think[s] we need to prepare carefully and take resolute action to fix their bad habits.”

His remarks came during an interview on the MBC radio show “A Closer Look with Kim Jong-bae.”

“Based on media reports and the explanations from government officials on both sides, [Moon and Suga] did appear to have planned for a meeting. That seems to be a fact,” Youn said.

He went on to say that the “simplified summit itself wasn’t something mutually agreed upon between the diplomatic leaders. It was pursued at the working level, so it’s going a bit far to talk about a ‘breach of etiquette.’”

“At the same time, they should at least explain why they didn’t appear at the simplified summit, but Japan keeps making excuses,” he added.

Youn explained, “In multilateral meetings, there’s a ‘lounge’ place, and [leaders] will have simplified meetings there over coffee while the plenary session is taking place.”

“Apparently, that happened around six times or so. But Prime Minister Suga only appeared in the lounge briefly the first time, and after that, he didn’t appear at all. In a way, it gave the impression that he was deliberately avoiding any kind of meeting,” he said.

“At first, Prime Minister Suga said he couldn’t come there because of his schedule. After that, they kept changing their story, saying there had been a ‘bit of a pull-aside meeting’ or that the leaders had ‘exchanged brief greetings,’” he continued. “It gave the sense that they were trying to pass the responsibility off on the working-level officials.”

Commenting on the possibility of Moon visiting Japan to attend the July opening of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Youn said, “We need to leave open two possible approaches.”

“The first of them is to simply go to Japan. No matter how infantile Japan is behaving, it may be an option to win by being magnanimous and generously reaching out first,” he said.

“But I also think we need to take this opportunity to prepare carefully and take resolute action to fix their bad habits,” he continued.

He added that a boycott of the Olympics was “also included” as an option.

“But that’s a last resort option that would need to be played carefully. The sword is scariest when you haven’t taken it out of its scabbard,” he said.

Responding to claims that Moon committed a “breach of diplomatic decorum” by appearing without a necktie in a G7 commemorative photograph, Youn said, “I don’t really think that’s a matter worth seriously responding to.”

“The ‘dress code’ for the G7 summit was up to the individual [leaders]. There have been a great many cases [of not wearing neckties] not just this time but also in the past,” he added.

By Lee Wan, staff reporter

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]