Japan's prime minister will return looted Korean royaldocuments during a summit with his South Korean counterpart this week,officials said Tuesday. The move is an apparent effort to boost relationsbetween the Asian neighbors.
Japan colonized the Korean peninsula from 1910-1945, andmany older Koreans still harbor deep resentment over its rule. Bilateral tiessuffered again this year due to a series of spats over the occupation.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda arrived in Seoul lateTuesday with five volumes of Korean royal documents that his country took awayduring its rule. Noda was to return the books to South Korean President LeeMyung-bak on Wednesday, according to Lee's office.
The documents are part of the 1,205 historical volumes thatJapan agreed to hand back to South Korea when Noda's predecessor, Naoto Kan,met with Lee last year. Noda took office last month.
Noda's visit comes two months after South Korea banned threeconservative Japanese lawmakers from entering the country after they arrived ata Seoul airport with a plan to travel near islets at the center of territorialand historical disputes between the countries. Earlier, Tokyo's defense reportclaimed for the seventh straight year that the islets belong to Japan, drawingprotests from Seoul.
The two countries also remain at odds over Seoul's offer tohold talks on Japan's compensation of Korean women forced into sexual slaveryfor Japan during the colonial rule. Japan declined, saying the matter wassettled by a 1965 bilateral treaty that normalized ties between Japan and SouthKorea.
Despite their troubled history, Seoul and Tokyo remainclosely tied economically and are key U.S. allies in the region. Both countriesare members of stalled six-nation negotiations on ending North Korea's nuclearprogram in return for aid.
The books' return appears to be Noda's symbolic goodwillgesture toward South Korea, Seoul National University professor and internationalrelations expert Park Cheol-hee said. "The return should be seen as a giftwith a political intention," he said.
Lee In-deog, head of the Institute of Japanese Studies atSeoul's Kookmin University, agreed, saying Japan understands the importance ofSouth Korea as a strategic partner in the region.