Moon to Attend Tokyo Olympics' Opening Ceremony

President Moon Jae-in hopes to visit Japan for the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Summer Olympics even as the Japanese government mulls running the whole event without spectators.

A government official said Thursday the plan is for Moon to visit Japan on July 23, when the opening ceremony takes place, and July 24. But the fractious neighbors have not yet agreed whether their leaders will sit down together.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, a stalwart of the hard right, has little to gain from sitting down with Moon, who is already in the lame-duck phase of his presidency.

Japan's Mainichi Shimbun speculated that any summit "will be limited to a brief meeting as long as Korea does not present a concrete plan to improve bilateral ties."