Yoon-Xi summit currently under discussion

The Korean presidential office is discussing a possible summit between President Yoon Suk Yeol and Chinese President Xi Jinping in San Francisco. The summit would be their second meeting since the G20 in November 2022.

President Yoon Suk Yeol, right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, greet each other at the APEC Summit in San Fransico on Thursday. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

The Korean presidential office said it is currently discussing with its Chinese counterpart a summit between President Yoon Suk Yeol and Chinese President Xi Jinping in San Francisco.

If the summit is held, it would be their second summit since the two met at the G20 held in Bali, Indonesia, in November 2022.

“Because of the tight schedule, it is hard to guarantee that the summit will be held until the last minute,” said a high-ranking official at the presidential office. “But we still have one more day left.”

Xi held his first summit in a year with U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday, and held a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Thursday.

However, a meeting with Yoon has not been scheduled.

The presidential office official said China was focusing all of its energy on Xi’s meeting with Biden.

“Then they will have to decide which country they want to hold close discussions with next,” the official said. “The summit between China and Japan was brief.”

Kim Tae-hyo, the National Security Office’s first deputy director, said Yoon and Xi talked for three to four minutes ahead of the APEC summit’s first session.

“I was told that they exchanged pleasantries about how glad they were to meet again after a year,” Kim said.

Kim added that Yoon reportedly told Xi that he hoped that he would make good progress at the APEC summit, to which Xi replied that he certainly will.

The deputy director added that during the meeting, the Chinese president told Yoon that he hoped for cooperation between the two countries.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]