Japanese Prime Minister Abe to visit S. Korea in mid-October: Cheong Wa Dae

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is scheduled to visit Seoul in the middle of October for a summit with South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, a ranking official at Roh's office Cheong Wa Dae said Friday.

The exact date of Abe's South Korean visit has yet to be confirmed, said the official.

Speculation has been mounting about Abe's visit to Seoul in early October, following reports by some Japanese media that the Japanese leader was seeking to hold a summit with Roh on Oct. 7.

But the Cheong Wa Dae official said Abe's visit will be delayed by about a week in consideration of Chuseok, Korea's three-day fall harvest holiday which falls on Oct. 5-7 this year. The holiday period could be extended to up to a week for many South Koreans as Oct. 3 is also National Foundation Day, a national holiday.

"South Korea and Japan agreed on Abe's visit to Seoul for a summit with Roh. But the schedule has yet to be fixed.

Negotiations are under way, with the middle of October in mind," said the official asking to remain anonymous.

"The government will seek to set the summit date in full consideration of the Chuseok holiday." He then indicated that it will take place some time between Oct. 10-20.

The summit was broadly agreed upon by Roh and Abe in their telephone talks Thursday. During the conversation, Roh and Abe agreed to resume stalled summit talks "at an appropriate time" to improve South Korea-Japan relations.

South Korea has boycotted summit talks with Japan for nearly a year in protest against repeat visits by Abe's predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, to a Tokyo war shrine accused of glorifying Japanese militarism.

Regarding the contentious issues, the Cheong Wa Dae official said, "The Japanese side is fully aware that the South Korean government's position towards bilateral disputes remains unchanged."

Seoul, Sept. 29 (Yonhap News)