Japanese FM due in Seoul next week

SEOUL, Feb. 4 (Yonhap) -- Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada will visit
South Korea next week for talks with his South Korean counterpart Yu Myung-hwan
on North Korea and other bilateral and regional issues, Seoul's foreign ministry
said Thursday.
Okada will arrive here Wednesday on a two-day visit.
"The two ministers will discuss ways to resume six-party talks and other issues
of mutual interest," a ministry official said.
The two are also expected to discuss South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's
scheduled trip to Japan this year as part of shuttle diplomacy between the
countries, according to ministry officials.
The trip will be Okada's first since becoming the foreign minister last year. But
it also comes amid a controversy over his remarks that were seen here as an
attempt to justify Japan's colonization of Korea from 1910-45.
In a press conference held in Tokyo on Tuesday, the Japanese foreign minister
said his country may not have been the only nation that pursued an expansionist
policy in the 19th century. The remark came when he was asked to comment on the
significance of the 100th anniversary of the start of the Japanese colonial rule
of Korea.
The South Korean foreign ministry on Wednesday said it has expressed concerns
that such remarks could prompt unnecessary tension between the countries, whose
relations are often marred by what many South Koreans believe to be Japan's
attempt to whitewash its past wrongdoings.
The Tokyo government has told Seoul that Okada's remarks were meant to stress a
need for his country to keep reminding itself of the sufferings of many Koreans,
the ministry said.
bdk@yna.co.kr
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