South Korean President Moon Jae In attends a meeting at his office in Seoul on July 19, 2021. (Photo courtesy of South Korea's presidential office/Kyodo)

       SEOUL (Kyodo) -- South Korean President Moon Jae In will not visit Japan for the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics on Friday, the presidential office said Monday.

       The Japanese government has been informed of the decision, sources close to Seoul and Tokyo said.

       The South Korean government had made Moon's Japan visit conditional on a summit meeting between him and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga aimed at resolving pressing bilateral matters.

       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.

       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.

       The already frayed ties between the two countries were jolted by fresh uncertainty 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.

       Hirohisa Soma, deputy chief of mission at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, 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.

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