By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
Japan's Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda will likely visit Korea to participate in the inauguration of President-elect Lee Myung-bak on Feb. 25, according to Lee's aides Friday.
If the prime minister makes the visit, a Seoul-Tokyo summit is likely take place after Lee takes office.
``When former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori paid a courtesy call to Lee as a special envoy from the Japanese government Thursday, he informed the President-elect of the prime minister's intention to attend the inauguration,'' one of the aides said asking to remain anonymous.
Fukuda will likely participate in the inauguration unless something unexpected happens, he added.
When incumbent President Roh Moo-hyun took office on February, 2003, then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi participated in the ceremony.
The last summit between the two countries was held in October 2006 when former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who resigned from the top post following an election defeat and his failure to renew his country's Afghan support mission, visited Seoul.
Diplomatic sources cast a positive outlook on bilateral relations which were strained after Japan claimed sovereignty over the South Korean islets of Dokdo and other controversial issues.
Once the President-elect visits Japan after his inauguration, the two nations can resume ``shuttle diplomacy'' under which diplomatic officials travel to their counterpart country every six months, the sources said.
Japan's Nihon Keizai newspaper reported Friday that the Japanese government is considering asking Lee to visit Tokyo by May.
Meanwhile, Vice Assembly Speaker Lee Sang-deuk, Lee's elder brother who was appointed as the President-elect's special envoy to Japan, is scheduled to visit Tokyo next Tuesday.
He plans to discuss ways to mend strained ties between the two countries, according to his aides.