MOON-YOON MEETING POSTPONED

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Today’s lunch meeting between President Moon Jae-in and President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol has been postponed. Both sides merely said that the details haven’t been worked out yet, without revealing any specific reasons.

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Cheong Wa Dae and President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s office simultaneously announced that today’s lunch meeting between the two men has been postponed. The two sides said this morning that the meeting will be rescheduled for a later date because working-level negotiations haven’t been concluded yet. They added that discussions will continue to take place. The President-elect’s spokesperson, Kim Eun-hye, explained that the two sides had agreed not to reveal why the luncheon was postponed. When asked who first asked to push back the meeting, she declined to answer, saying the decision was the result of working-level negotiations. Senior Secretary for Political Affairs Rhee Cheol-hee and the President-elect’s Chief of Staff Jang Je-won were working out the specifics of the meeting. Some political commentators believe that a problem might have occurred as they were talking about the pardoning of ex-President Lee Myung-bak, an issue Yoon had already promised to bring up at the meeting. Also, Yoon had asked to talk about the appointment of public corporation and government agency officials at the end of the current administration. The presidential office publicly stated that it would make appointments before the administration ends, which might have caused a problem. The first meeting between President Moon and the president-elect is likely to take place sometime next week.