President Lee Jae-myung said on the 7th, "Our government considers relations with Japan to be as important as those with China."
At 1 p.m. (Korea time) that day, the president said this at a press briefing with the traveling press corps at the Shanghai Press Center in China.
Regarding Chinese President Xi Jinping's remark at the Korea-China summit on the 5th that "we must stand on the right side of history," the president said, "I took that as a Confucian saying," adding, "I understood it to mean, let's live kindly and well."
He went on, "I don't know if there was an intent to assign a particular meaning, but it is true that we strive to stand on the right side historically," adding, "If it was meant with a specific issue in mind, I don't see the need to respond to that."
The president also said, "Each side says what it wants to say. It is best to take public remarks as they are," adding, "And I made this point clearly. President Xi Jinping does his utmost for China's interests, and Lee Jae-myung does his utmost for the national interest of the Republic of Korea, right?"