Japan to be Lee’s First Country to Visit

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun stated on Tuesday that regarding the Korea-Japan relations, President-elect Lee Myung-bak selected Japan as the first country to make a state visit and both nations are negotiating on the details of the schedule.

The Japanese newspaper analyzed that President-elect Lee plans to visit Japan and the U.S. immediately after his inauguration to quickly normalize Korea’s ties with both countries which have been weakened by the Roh Moo-hyun administration.

Referring a telephone conversation with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda in December 2007, President-elect Lee suggested the resumption of “shuttle diplomacy” under which the leaders of the two neighboring countries travel to their counterpart country every year.

iam@donga.com