South Korean President To Meet Biden in Shadow of Classified Documents Leaks

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol will be in Washington on April 26 for a summit meeting with Joe Biden. A senior South Korean official told reporters in Washington yesterday that the leaked classified documents have indeed “inevitably had an effect” on things ahead of the meeting, reported the Korea Herald. Consequently, the official said, on condition of anonymity, the upcoming summit will touch upon ways to restore trust in bilateral information-gathering and sharing in the wake of the leakage. He referred to the leakage of what was believed to be an intelligence document showing the White House had been collecting the government communications in Korea. The official said he was also told by a U.S. official that the leakage has put the U.S. in a tough spot, given that such exchanges over the matter before the official meeting of President Yoon Suk Yeol and U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington might dent the Korea-U.S. alliance. The official maintained that what the documents indicate does “not accord with the facts.”