With the radar lock-on dispute between South Korea and Japan still raging on,.. a South Korean foreign ministry official in charge of U.S. affairs will visit Japan on Wednesday to tour UN-flagged military bases.
Lee Seung-jae reports.
Seoul's foreign ministry says Kim Tae-jin, the director general of the ministry's North American affairs bureau, is scheduled to travel to Japan on Wednesday for a two-day trip,... accompanied by other ministry officials.
"Kim Tae-jin will visit UN-flagged bases in Japan from January 30th to the 31st after receiving an invitation from the UN. He's expected to meet with officials from U.S. Forces Japan."
The visit will provide Kim and his delegation a chance to meet with their Japanese counterparts, as the two countries have been embroiled in a radar dispute involving a Japanese maritime patrol jet and a South Korean naval destroyer in December.
Watchers say it's possible Washington will play a mediating role between its regional allies to resolve the standoff,... as there could be a trilateral session joined by a representative from the U.S. Forces Japan.
This comes as the U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, Harry Harris, had a series of meetings with South Korea's defense and foreign ministers in Seoul on Monday,... in which they covered recent issues.
Japan's defense minister Takeshi Iwaya, speaking to Japanese broadcaster NHK on Tuesday, called for a need to cool tensions,... adding that a meeting with his South Korean counterpart could happen soon.
Seoul-Tokyo relations have deteriorated to levels not seen in years over the radar dispute.
It has been compounded by the ongoing tensions over Japan's wartime atrocities against Korea, especially Tokyo's use of forced labor and its military's sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II.
Lee Seung-jae, Arirang News.
