About a dozen lawmakers from Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party will visit Japan and South Korea beginning Sunday in a bid to strengthen communications between their parliaments, DPP officials said Wednesday.
The delegation, led by legislator Chai Trong, will arrive in Tokyo on Sunday afternoon for a three-day stay. The lawmakers will travel to Seoul on Aug. 9 and return to Taipei on Aug. 12.
In Japan, they are scheduled to meet with members of a pro-Taiwan group of Diet members from several parties and have a separate meeting with lawmakers from the Democratic Party of Japan, the main opposition party.
They will also meet Toshio Goto, head of the Interchange Association, the body that handles bilateral ties in the absence of formal diplomatic relations.
In South Korea, the group is expected to have talks with the speaker and deputy speaker of the legislature, as well as other lawmakers.
The members of the delegation -- including recently elected DPP floor leader Hsu Tain-tsair and his predecessor, Cheng Pao-ching -- belong to the Mainstream Alliance, a parliamentary umbrella group of several DPP factions. The alliance was formed after the DPP won the March presidential election.
The group decided to visit Japan and South Korea after a plan to travel to China fell through because Beijing continues to refuse to talk with Taiwan's new DPP-led government as long as Taipei refuses to endorse the "one-China" principle.
Instead, Chinese leaders have received lawmakers from the major opposition Nationalist Party (KMT) and a KMT splinter, the New Party.
The two opposition parties advocate eventual unification, though not on Beijing's terms, while the DPP says the Taiwan people must be free to decide the island's future, including the matter of formal independence.