Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto will hold talks with South Korean President Kim Dae Jung in early April while they visit London to attend the Asia-Europe Meeting to be held April 3 and 4, Chief Cabinet Secretary Kanezo Muraoka announced March 12.
It will their first meeting since Kim assumed his post last month. The meeting was proposed by Hashimoto, whose intention was delivered to Seoul by Seiichiro Noboru, head of the Cabinet Councilors' Office on External Affairs.
Noboru is currently visiting Seoul to meet with South Korean officials to lay the foundations for better relations with the country under the administration of the new president.
Bilateral relations between Tokyo and Seoul have been marred due partly to a fisheries pact stalled by a territorial dispute involving an island in the Sea of Japan claimed by both countries. Japan calls the island Takeshima, while South Korea calls it Tok-do.