Lee to Visit Japan in Late April

South Korean President-elect Lee Myung-bak, scheduled to take office on Feb. 25, has indicated his willingness to visit Tokyo in late April to restore relations between the two sides, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported Sunday.

Quoting unnamed sources, Kyodo said Lee hopes to revive "shuttle diplomacy" between the two countries, whose ties have been strained over the years by a series of historical issues.

The strain peaked whenever former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited the controversial Yasukuni war shrine in Tokyo that honors the war dead, including class-A war criminals of World War II.

Relations further soured when Japan laid territorial claims over South Korea's Dokdo islets in the East Sea and refused to assume full responsibility for Korean "comfort women" dragged into sex slavery during World War II. Japan colonized Korea for much of the first half of the last century.

Lee, the former Seoul mayor and business executive who won the election in December, said last week in a meeting with Japanese politicians that he is willing to seek renewed relations with Japan. (Yonhap)