U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (L) looks at South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-Se during a news conference in Seoul, South Korea March 17, 2017. REUTERS/JUNG Yeon-Je/Pool

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson hit back at media reports claiming that he canceled his dinner arrangements in South Korea because of "fatigue."

During an interview with the Independent Review Journal, the interviewer asked Tillerson about reports in the South Korean media that he had shortened his trip to the country in order to spend more time in Japan, to which Tillerson replied, "They never invited us for dinner."

He added: "[T]hen at the last minute they realized that optically it wasn’t playing very well in public for them, so they put out a statement that we didn’t have dinner because I was tired."

"So are you saying they lied about it?" the interviewer asked.

"No, it was just their explanation," Tillerson replied.

Wrapping up his comments on the controversy, Tillerson explained that, "The host country decides whether we are going to do things or not. We didn’t decide that."