Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto will send a high-ranking official to South Korea later this week as a special envoy to set the groundwork for better relations with Seoul's new administration under President Kim Dae Jung, Chief Cabinet Secretary Kanezo Muraoka said March 9.
Seiichiro Noboru, chief of the Cabinet Councilors' Office on External Affairs, will visit Seoul for three days starting March 11, Muraoka said at a regular news conference.
Noboru will meet with senior South Korean officials to discuss bilateral relations in general, the top government spokesman said.
They will reportedly touch on issues concerning the deadlocked fisheries talks, but are not expected to go into details over the dispute.
In late January, Japan unilaterally decided to terminate a 1965 bilateral fisheries pact following the breakdown of nearly two years of negotiations. The existing treaty will be valid until next January.