Japan and South Korea leaders play K-pop drums together in Nara summit

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi of Japan and President Lee Jae Myung of South Korea played drums to K-pop at a summit in Nara, Japan, in a lighthearted session meant to signal warming ties between the two countries. The impromptu performance came after a joint news conference in a hotel conference room, where the two sat at adjacent drum sets and played songs including "Dynamite" by BTS and "Golden" from "KPop Demon Hunters." They wore matching blue track jackets with their names in cursive, and staff members provided applause during the roughly 20-minute session.

"It's hard to match the rhythm, isn't it?" Mr. Lee said in a video of the session posted online, to which Ms. Takaichi replied, "No, no, no!" Ms. Takaichi later said, "Mr. President mastered playing the drums in just five or 10 minutes," and Mr. Lee wrote on X that the performance at first "felt a bit awkward, but as we kept playing, the sounds came together as one." The musical moment followed hours of talks on issues including nuclear weapons, critical minerals and economic security, and came as the leaders pledged to cooperate on cracking down on organized crime, streamlining supply chains and upholding a three-way security pact with the United States set up in 2023.

The session was presented as a symbol of closer ties amid geopolitical and economic uncertainty, including what the report described as an "erratic" U.S.

Key Topics

World, Sanae Takaichi, Lee Jae Myung, Nara, Horyuji Temple, K-pop