South Korea's presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae Wednesday accepted Washington's apology for unilaterally announcing U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to Seoul in early August.
Dennis Wilder, an Asian affairs director at the White House's National Security Council, told reporters Tuesday (Washington time) that Bush will visit South Korea Aug. 5-6 before heading for China for the Summer Olympics.
Hours later, the U.S. government offered an apology through diplomatic channels for unilaterally disclosing Bush's South Korean trip to the media, according to Yonhap News.
"It's not desirable for the U.S. to disclose Bush's Seoul trip schedule without consultations with South Korea," a top-ranking Cheong Wa Dae official was quoted as saying. "The U.S. says its mistake was caused by a slip of the tongue by an individual official. But we don't think such an incident is desirable. It should not be repeated."
The schedule for Bush's South Korean trip was agreed upon during U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's talks with her South Korean counterpart Yu Myung-hwan in Seoul last week.
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