Japanese leader to visit S. Korea next month: Seoul officials

SEOUL, Sept. 27 (Yonhap) -- Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is likely to
meet President Lee Myung-bak in Seoul next month ahead of an upcoming
Korea-Japan-China summit, officials here said Sunday.

The Japanese premier will fly to South Korea on Oct. 9, the eve of the trilateral
summit in Beijing, as his first trip to Seoul since taking the post earlier this
month, a Seoul official said, requesting anonymity as he was not authorized to
speak to media about the issue.
Following up their first official meeting in the United States earlier this
month, the two leaders will discuss bilateral ties, the North Korea nuclear
issue, the upcoming Group of 20 summit in Seoul, climate change, green growth and
other issues, the official said.
Another unnamed Seoul official called Hatoyama's upcoming visit "proof" of the
incoming Japanese administration attaching importance to relations with Korea.
The two countries agreed in April last year to resume "shuttle diplomacy," under
which the leaders of Seoul and Tokyo are supposed to increase opportunities to
discuss regional security and economic issues via visits.
Lee and Hatoyama had their first summit earlier this week on the sidelines of the
Group of 20 economic summit in Pittsburgh, where the Japanese leader said his
government has the "courage" to address directly the two countries' shared
history -- including Japan's colonization of Korea from 1910-45 -- and hopes to
build constructive and future-oriented ties with South Korea.
hayney@yna.co.kr
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