The cochairman of South Korea's 2002 World Cup Organizing Committee expressed hope Thursday that the Emperor will attend the event's opening ceremony in Seoul.
In a news conference for foreign correspondents, Chung Mong Joon, who is also vice president of soccer's world governing body FIFA, said, "it will be conforming with the spirit of cohosting (the Cup) for the two heads of state to attend the opening ceremony."
Chung, also chairman of South Korea's National Football Association, called on both nations to strive for an atmosphere that would enable the Emperor to be in the stands for the kickoff of the World Cup finals.
An Imperial visit to South Korea would be highly sensitive because strong anti-Japanese sentiment remains in South Korea over Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.