JAKARTA, July 31 (Reuters) - Indonesia's President Prabowo Subianto said on Friday that South Korean President Lee Jae Myung asked him whether he could visit North Korea to open dialogue, adding that he would go.
Prabowo was speaking during a meeting with the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce.
As Prabowo spoke about Indonesia's pursuit of equally good relations with all countries, including China and The United States, he brought up the request made at his
Aug 1 (Reuters) - Top-seeded American Jessica Pegula beat Russia's Diana Shnaider 7-5 6-4 on Saturday and set up a Washington Open final against the Philippines' Alexandra Eala, who defeated Japan's Naomi Osaka 6-4 6-2.
World number three Pegula is seeking her third title of the year and 12th of her career after winning in Dubai and Charleston. The 32-year-old won her first WTA title in Washington in 2019.
The 22-year-old Shnaider, who reached this year's French Open semi-finals, was bidding for her sixth WTA title. She raced into a 5-2 lead in the opening set, but Pegula began her comeback by holding serve before breaking in the ninth game.
The American then held to love to level the set at 5-5, broke again in the next game and served out the set when Shnaider sent a forehand wide.
Pegula broke for a 3-2 lead in the second set and extended her advantage to 5-2 with another break before closing out the match with a forehand winner after 87 minutes.
"I just capitalised on a couple of areas," Pegula said. "I think I started just trying to find the rhythm on the return. I didn't think I was that far off ... So, just trying to pick up my energy and again, try and be a little bit more aggressive."
Eala moved within one win of her first WTA title after delivering a composed performance against four-times Grand Slam champion Osaka.
The 21-year-old, playing in her third semi-final this year, reached the last four after beating second seed Elina Svitolina for her sixth win of the season over a top-10 opponent.
Eala, who made the fourth round at Wimbledon last month, broke Osaka in the ninth game of the opening set after they had been level at 4-4, then held to love to take the opener.
She carried that momentum into the second, breaking in the opening game and again to move 4-2 ahead before sealing victory without dropping a set during her run to the final.
"I think I played really well and, of course, it's such a meaningful match against a great player. So really happy to share the court with Naomi," Eala said.
"I'm in the final for a reason. I just have to trust myself. She (Pegula) is such an amazing player. I think it's going to be a really good match," she added.
(Reporting by Angelica Medina in Mexico City; Editing by Ken Ferris)
last visit to Seoul in April.
"During my last visit to South Korea, their president asked me if I could visit North Korea to open some kind of a dialogue. I told him, with all due respect and willingness, if you asked me to, I would go," he said.
"Indonesia is seen as having no interest in meddling in other countries' domestic affairs. We hold firm to that," he said.
In response, Lee's office said South Korea believed Indonesia and other countries with friendly ties to both Seoul and Pyongyang could play a constructive role in helping foster peaceful coexistence on the Korean peninsula, and that it had continued to explore ways to cooperate with them.
Indonesia traditionally has a non-aligned foreign policy.
It is not the first time Prabowo has expressed his willingness to mediate.
Indonesia's foreign minister Sugiono said in March that Prabowo was willing to be a mediator in the Iran war in a bid "to cool down and de-escalate the situation in the region."
Lee and Prabowo discussed energy security and agreed to expand cooperation in areas such as defence during the April meeting.
Lee has sought to ease tensions with Pyongyang since taking office last year, but repeated overtures for dialogue have been rebuffed by North Korea, which declared South Korea as a "hostile nation" in 2024.
(Reporting by Stanley Widianto and Stefanno Sulaiman; Additional reporting by Heejin Kim and Joyce Lee in Seoul; Editing by David Stanway)
