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Former President Moon Jae-in lunches with President Joe Biden on May 21, 2021, at the White House. (provided by the Blue House)

A tentative meeting between US President Joe Biden and former South Korean President Moon Jae-in that was expected to take place during Biden’s visit to Korea has ultimately been canceled.

A high-ranking official on Moon’s team said on Thursday that they had received a phone call from the US Embassy in Seoul saying Washington had decided to not go ahead with the meeting.

“The two [sides] had been coordinating their meeting up to this point following the US' proposal based on President Biden’s wish to meet Moon ‘personally’ and ‘unofficially',” the official said.

Regarding the meeting, Jake Sullivan, the White House national security advisor, told reporters on Wednesday that “We don't have a meeting scheduled with President Moon at this time."

Biden and Moon’s “informal personal meeting” was initially proposed by the White House shortly after the South Korean presidential election on March 9. Discussions between the two sides have since been held behind closed doors.

Biden reportedly wanted an informal and personal meeting with Moon to express his “personal gratitude.” Since there is no precedent for a meeting between a sitting US and former South Korean leader, public interest was high as to whether the meeting would actually take place.

Multiple high-level diplomatic sources well-informed on the situation said that Biden had been in talks to meet with Moon in Seoul on Sunday, May 22, the last day of his visit to Korea, after completing the official schedule of the Korea-US summit with President Yoon Suk-yeol.

A meeting with Moon was reportedly tentatively scheduled during Biden’s three-day, two-night visit to Korea, which was initially coordinated by the White House.

However, the White House side delayed the final notification of the meeting place and time between Moon and Biden. Then in a press briefing related to Biden’s South Korea and Japan trip, Sullivan said the US side had no plans to meet with Moon at this time. Then, Moon was notified later that afternoon that the final decision had been made not to hold the meeting.

Several factors seem to have contributed to the decision by Biden’s team, who initially hoped for and proposed to meet first, to cancel the meeting despite concerns of being discourteous to Moon.

Speculation was rife in South Korea about Biden’s motives for wanting to meet the former president. Former Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun said that Biden could see Moon as a possible mediator who could serve as a “bridge” between the US and North Korea. There were also concerns about a negative reaction from the Yoon administration if the meeting were to go ahead.

“There is no need nor any justification for the presidential office to intervene in any affairs between former President Moon and President Biden,” an official from Yoon’s office said.

By Lee Je-hun, senior staff writer; Kim Mi-na, staff reporter

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