The Office of the President released a statement denying the accuracy of an AFP report regarding the cancelation of a ceremony involving President Shimon Peres in S. Korea due to security concerns.

“The Office of the President would like to clarify unequivocally that the report published today, which claims that Korea University canceled a ceremony in which President Peres would have been awarded an honorary degree and given an opportunity to speak, is totally false.

“The Office of the President, on its own initiative, had contacted Korea University eight days ago to notify them that unfortunately the President would not be able to participate in the ceremony. The Office also notified the university that the President would make a parallel speech at a special conference for Korean and Israeli businesspeople.  The heads of the university thanked the Office of the President for the early update, and subsequently this morning, the President spoke at a special business conference in Seoul at the exact time he was expected previously to be at the university. High-ranking officials from the embassies of Korea and Israel have contacted AFP with these complaints and the agency declared that it has corrected the error and removed it from its website”.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)