Yoon Suk-yeol, Biden expected to hold their first summit in late May

South Korean President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol and U.S. President Joe Biden are expected to hold summit around May 24.

During his virtual summit with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday (local time), U.S. President Biden said he is looking forward to seeing Modi in Japan on May 24. President Biden hinted that he is planning to visit Japan around May 24 for a meeting of leaders of Quad member nations including the U.S., Japan, Australia and India.

If President Biden actually visits Japan next month, he is expected to stop in South Korea. A high-ranking government official said the question was when a Quad meeting would be scheduled, not whether President Biden would visit South Korea on the sidelines of the Quad meeting. President-elect Yoon’s delegation, which came back after a week-long trip to Washington, D.C., met reporters and emphasized that the two sides agreed on the need for an early summit.

If a Quad meeting is held on May 24, the heads of South Korea and the U.S. are highly likely to meet either on May 23 or 25. This means President-elect Yoon, who is set to take office on May 10, will meet with the U.S. President in two weeks after swearing in. It would be the earliest summit between a South Korean President and his U.S. counterpart after taking office. President Moon Jae-in met with then-U.S. President Donald Trump 51 days after taking office. In addition, the heads of the two countries will be meeting in Seoul for the first time in 29 years since the meeting between former South Korean President Kim Young-sam and former U.S. President Bill Clinton in Seoul in July.


Jin-Woo Shin niceshin@donga.com