Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se will visit Tokyo this coming weekend to meet with his Japanese counterpart on mending ties that have been frayed over shared history, the Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.
It would be Yun's first trip to Japan since taking office in 2013.
His two-day visit from Sunday also comes as the Northeast Asian neighbors mark next week the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic ties.
Yun will hold talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida shortly arriving there Sunday, according to a press release from the ministry.
The two sides plan to exchange views on "bilateral ties, the North Korean issue and other mutual issues of concern including regional and global security situations," it said.
Yun and Kishida are certain to discuss Japan's sexual enslavement of Korean women for its troops during World War II.
Last week, President Park Geun-hye told the Washington Post that Seoul and Tokyo have made "considerable progress" in negotiations over Tokyo's formal apology and reparations.
She added the two sides are in the final stage of talks but did not give details.
Also at issue is Japan's push to have a package of Meiji Era industrial facilities be given UNESCO world heritage status.
Many Koreans were conscripted to work as slave laborers at some of the locations during Japan's brutal colonization of the peninsula from 1910-45.
South Korea has urged Japan to clarify the tragic historical background in UNESCO documents.
It remains unclear whether Yun's trip will produce a breakthough.
On Monday, he is scheduled to attend an anniversary event at the South Korean Embassy in Tokyo.
He initially planned to visit Japan in 2013 but canceled it in protest of visits by senior Japanese officials to a controversial war shrine in Tokyo, including Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso.
South Korea views the Yasukuni Shrine as a symbol of Japan's imperialistic past as 14 Class-A war criminals are enshrined there among war dead. (Yonhap)
