Secretary of State Rex Tillerson dismissed a report Friday that he turned down a dinner with South Korean officials because he was tired.
The Korea Herald reported that Tillerson cut short his meetings and public events in Seoul following long meetings and a dinner with Japanese officials during his first trip to Asia as secretary of state. According to the paper, “Seoul officials said the US side opted not to have a meal together, citing the secretary’s ‘fatigue.'”
During his interview with Independent Journal Review’s Erin McPike, published early Saturday, Tillerson claimed he never received an invite for dinner from the South Koreans.
[South Korean officials] never invited us for dinner, then at the last minute they realized that optically it wasn’t playing very well in public for them, so they put out a statement that we didn’t have dinner because I was tired,” Tillerson said.
Asked if he whether he was saying somebody lied, Tillerson replied, “No, it was just their explanation.”
He said he did have dinner, not revealing with who, and explained that it is usually the host country that schedules a joint meeting or meal.
“We didn’t decide that,” he said.
