This combined file photo shows Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, left, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. (Mainichi)

       SEOUL (Kyodo) -- An aide to South Korean President Moon Jae In indicated Monday the government will decide soon whether the president will visit Japan for the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics on Friday given members of his entourage must self-isolate upon arrival.

       Fresh uncertainty was injected into the already frayed ties between the two countries late last week when local media reported that a senior Japanese diplomat in Seoul had made an inappropriate remark about Moon, prompting the South Korean Foreign Ministry to lodge a protest.

       The decision about Moon's trip could come during a regular presidential office meeting slated to be held later Monday that Moon will attend.

       As a condition for Moon's Japan visit, the South Korean government has called for summit talks with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga that would aim to resolve pressing bilateral matters.

       Park Soo Hyun, secretary for public communication at the presidential office, said during a radio interview on Monday that no decision had been made about Moon's visit.

       The aide did leave open the possibility that the president may make a choice different from what the South Korean public wants, to prioritize the nation's interests.

       Regarding the controversial remark made by Hirohisa Soma, deputy chief of mission at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, Park said that Seoul has asked Tokyo to make sure no similar incident occurs again, and that he has been told Tokyo will take some kind of action. Soma reportedly told a South Korean reporter that Moon is in a tug-of-war only with himself over frayed ties between Japan and South Korea, using a sexually explicit expression.

       Japan and South Korea have not had summit talks since December 2019, when Suga's predecessor Shinzo Abe met with Moon in China. Suga and Moon merely exchanged greetings at a Group of Seven summit event in Britain in June.

       Some South Korean media reports have alluded to the possibility that Prime Minister Kim Bu Gyeom may attend Friday's opening ceremony in Tokyo in Moon's place if the president decides to skip the trip.

       Ties between the two Asian neighbors remain frozen mainly over issues stemming from Japan's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula between 1910 and 1945, including compensation for former wartime laborers.

       Japan maintains all issues concerning properties and claims related to its colonial rule have been settled under a bilateral agreement signed alongside a 1965 treaty that established diplomatic relations between the two countries.

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