A Japanese daily says the South Korean government received text of the Japanese prime minister’s apology for Japan’s colonial rule of Korea just before the statement was issued.

The Asahi Shimbun said Wednesday that Tokyo sent the text to Seoul at 6 a.m. Tuesday, just hours before Prime Minister Naoto Kan issued the apology. The report added that around 10 a.m., or right before the statement was issued, Seoul notified Tokyo that it “positively assessed” the statement.

Asahi said that Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada had presented an outline of the prime minister’s statement to South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan during a telephone conversation earlier on Monday.