President Moon Jae-in met at Cheong Wa Dae with President Natsuo Yamaguchi of the Komeito Party, the Japanese ruling coalition party, for 40 minutes from 11:00 this morning.  

President Moon welcomed him by saying he was pleased to meet the Party President who has played a great role as a respected political leader in Japan in helping advance Korea-Japan ties. He went on to say he was grateful to him and his party for having consistently done so despite many twists and turns between the two countries, adding he looked forward to the Japanese party leader continuing to work for a future-oriented bilateral relationship. 

President Moon also expressed the hope that the PyeongChang Winter Olympics would become a stage on which the excellent next-generation athletes of the two nations would be able to grow together just as Kim Yuna and Mao Asada had grown into world-class figure skaters through fair competition in the past. He continued to say he looked forward to the good performances of Japanese athletes at the forthcoming Olympics, which he hoped to serve as an opportunity to increase people-to-people exchanges between the two countries with many Japanese people traveling to Korea.

President Yamaguchi explained his party has long continued exchanges with Korea, saying he was taught that Korea was a great cultural benefactor. He went on to stress the importance of expanding bilateral interactions and cooperation in diverse areas going forward, including parliamentary exchanges. President Moon responded by saying he looked forward to vibrant goodwill exchanges between the politicians of the two countries, including through the Korea-Japan Parliamentarians` Union.

Mentioning that he thought highly of the ties with Japan, President Moon said the two countries had many things in common in terms of culture and history, thereby being inseparable from each other. The President added that joint efforts by the two neighboring countries could further common prosperity and

 development.  

The President also said, though the number of people traveling back and forth between the two nations was on the rise, the number of Japanese people traveling to Korea was relatively low. In this connection, the President suggested the two nations work together to help an increasing number of Japanese people visit Korea on the occasion of the upcoming PyeongChang Winter Olympics and other events. 

President Moon said that to respond to the North`s provocations, his Administration has so far been working together with the international community while also maintaining close coordination between Korea and Japan as well as among Korea, the United States and Japan. The President went on to say that the Korean Government continued making efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue peacefully and diplomatically by imposing maximum sanctions and pressure against the North to ultimately bring it back to the negotiating table. The President also emphasized that it was necessary to manage the situation in a stable manner so that tensions on the Korean Peninsula do not escalate unduly. 

President Yamaguchi said that North Korean missiles flew over Japan twice this year and that the Japanese public was very anxious about the series of provocations by the North. He went on to say that it was important for the international community to persuade North Korea to change its attitude by becoming closely united and putting pressure on it. He also expressed the hope that efforts would be made so that the unity of the international community would lead to a diplomatic and peaceful solution. 

President Moon suggested they work together so that the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics and 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics would become opportunities to open an era of peace on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia. President Yamaguchi said that it was historically meaningful that three Olympics would be held one after the other in Northeast Asia and that the success of PyeongChang Olympics, the first in the series, would be important, adding that he would closely cooperate for its success. 

President Yamaguchi delivered Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s personal letter to President Moon. President Moon expressed his wish that a trilateral meeting among Korea, Japan and China would be held at the earliest date possible, allowing him to visit Japan. President Moon also asked President Yamaguchi to convey his regards to the Prime Minister and deliver a message that he was looking forward to the Prime Minister’s visit to Korea during the PyeongChang Olympics.