President Moon takes a sick day, calls off gov’t meetings

The government called off a scheduled meetings, including one on deregulation, at the last minute on Wednesday, as President Moon Jae-in fell ill from his recent tight schedule.

According to the Blue House, the presidential doctor has strongly advised the president to rest until this weekend, so the president has cancelled and postponed official business in the next two days.

On Wednesday President Moon was scheduled to meet with Unesco Director General Audrey Azoulay on Wednesday, but cancelled the meeting. The meeting on deregulation, which was to take place at the Blue House at 3 p.m., was canceled an hour ahead of the meeting.

The Blue House said earlier that the meeting was postponed by the proposal made by Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon, who cited a lack of adequate preparations for the meeting.

The government was to discuss ways to speed up the lifting of excessive government regulations, including those on online banking.

The Blue House said the cancelation of the deregulation meeting, however, was not directly related to the president’s health, as Prime Minister Lee, when delaying the meeting, did not know the president’s health situation.

“President Moon said he, too, felt frustrated,” a Blue House official added.

Yonhap