S Korea

The Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida arrived in Seoul earlier on Sunday for a two-day working visit and stopped at Seoul National Cemetery to pay his respects to Korea's fallen independence activists and war veterans before heading to the presidential office.

According to Japan's Kyodo News on Tuesday, the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo lodged a protest to Seoul over the visit by Jeon Yong-gi of the main opposition Democratic Party to Dokdo earlier that day, reports Yonhap News Agency. The Seoul Foreign Ministry official said the government "dismissed the unfair claim from Japan through diplomatic channels".

US Special Representative for North Korea Sung Kim held a meeting with his South Korean counterpart, Kim Gunn, on Tuesday on the sidelines of the Asan Plenum 2023 conference, a security forum hosted by a local think tank, Yonhap news agency reported. The two sides shared their assessments of the current security.

The Yomiuri Shimbun cited multiple diplomatic sources saying Kishida's visit could take place on May 7 or 8 to reciprocate Yoon's visit to Tokyo in March. If realised, the trip will mark Kishida's first to South Korea since taking office, Yonhap news agency reported.Several other newspapers also carried similar reports.

"The US and Republic of Korea alliance wasn't born out of shared borders, but shared beliefs: Democracy, liberty, security, and above all -- freedom," Biden wrote on Twitter, referring to South Korea's official name, Yonhap news agency reported. Biden posted the comment as Yoon was on his way home from a six-day state visit.

Japanese media reported on Saturday hat Seoul and Tokyo are in talks to arrange Kishida's visit to the South Korean capital and a summit with Yoon on May 7 and 8, reports Yonhap News Agency. "Nothing has been officially decided yet," a senior presidential official told reporters in Boston, where Yoon is on the second leg of his state visit to the US.

The negative assessment of Yoon's conduct of state affairs gained 2.4 percentage points to 63.4 per cent, according to local pollster Realmeter. Support for the ruling conservative People Power Party came to 33.9 per cent last week, down 3.1 percentage points from the previous week, reports Xinhua news agency. The main liberal opposition Democratic Party's popularity rating increased 2.9 percentage points to 48.8 per cent.

About 110 aircraft and more than 1,400 troops were mobilised for this year's Korea Flying Training (KFT), which got underway earlier in the day for a 12-day run at Gwangju Air Base in Gwangju, 267 km south of Seoul, according to the armed service. More than 60 South Korean warplanes, including F-35A, F-15K and KF-16 fighters, will join the drills, while the US will deploy some 40 aircraft, such as its Air Force's F-16 fighters, A-10 attack aircraft and the Marine Corps' F-35B and FA-18 jets, reports Yonhap News Agency.

The three nations reached the agreement at a session of the Defence Trilateral Talks (DTT) on Friday, amid tensions caused by Pyongyang's recent weapons tests, including that of what it claims to be a solid-fuel Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Thursday, reports Yonhap News Agency.The first DTT session in three years was yet another indication of tightening security cooperation among the three nations.

In the poll of 1,002 adults conducted by Gallup Korea from Tuesday to Thursday, the positive assessment of Yoon's performance declined 4 percentage points from the previous week to 27 per cent, Yonhap News Agency reported. Yoon's disapproval rating was 65 per cent, up 4 percentage points from the previous week.