On May 7th, Kim Gun-hee, the First Lady of South Ko­rea, had a friendly meeting with Kishida Yuko, the spouse of Japanese Prime Minister, during his visit to Korea. This was not their first meeting as they also met last November during the G20 Summit in Indonesia and in March during President Yoon Suk-yeol's visit. During their March meeting, the two spous­es made cookies and had a tea time together as they discussed promoting cultural exchange and mutual growth between their countries.

First lady Kim invited Mrs. Kishida to Seoul's Jingwan­sa Temple and served her tea while introducing Korea's traditional culture, arts, and customs. Kim said, 'Since Mrs. Kishida have studied tea cere­mony for more than 20 years, I have arranged a tea ceremony for your first visit to Korea so that you can feel more comfort­able.' They enjoyed tea together and talked about expanding cultural exchanges and mutu­al prosperity between the two countries.

Afterwards, the two spouses watched a traditional Korean performance, including the Beopgo-mu dance, and med­itated together to honor the victims of tragic incidents in both countries and to wish for reconciliation and harmony between the two nations. Kim Gun-hee expressed her condo­lences for the past sufferings caused by unfortunate inci­dents between Korea and Ja­pan and her desire to work to­wards promoting peace and co­operation. Akie Abe expressed her gratitude for the warm reception and for the opportu­nity to deepen the friendship between the two countries.

Later, President Yoon and First Lady Kim invited Prime Minister Kishida and his wife for a dinner.

Caption: On May 7th, Kim Gun-hee, the First Lady of South Korea, at tended a friendship event with Yuko Kishida, the wife of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishi­da. (Photo: Presidential Of­fice)