SEOUL-- The foreign ministry refused Tuesday to confirm a Japanese media report that Seoul and Tokyo were in talks over President Moon Jae-in's possible visit to Japan on the occasion of the Tokyo Olympics later this year.

The Yomiuri Shimbun reported earlier in the day that Seoul had sounded Tokyo out about Moon's potential trip to Japan during the Games slated for July 23-Aug. 8 and that Tokyo leaned toward accepting his visit. But Japan's chief Cabinet secretary denied the report later.

"At this point, we have nothing to mention about it," Choi Young-sam, ministry spokesman, said during a regular press briefing.

A ministry official told reporters later that Seoul is "open" to high-level exchanges with the Japanese side while hoping that the Tokyo Olympics will successfully proceed.

Moon has pushed to hold his first in-person summit with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga as part of efforts to address long-simmering issues of Japan's wartime forced labor and sexual slavery.

Seoul and Tokyo tentatively agreed to hold a pull-aside between the leaders on the margins of the three-day Group of Seven session in Britain that ended Sunday, a ministry official said. But Tokyo called it off, taking issue with Korea's annual drills to defend its easternmost islets of Dokdo.

Asked about whether Japan lodged a protest over the ongoing drills, Choi stressed that the regular military maneuvers are "defensive in nature."

Source: Yonhap News Agency