South Korean President Kim Dae Jung arrived in Japan on Friday for a three-day visit, during which he will meet with Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and other government officials.
Kim, accompanied by his wife, Lee Hee Ho, and several Cabinet ministers and South Korean representatives from cultural and economic fields, landed at Tokyo's Haneda airport ahead of weekend summit talks scheduled to take place at the hot-spring resort city of Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture.
On Friday afternoon, Kim attended a tea party with cultural representatives from Japan and South Korea and a banquet with business leaders from the two countries in Tokyo, according to a Foreign Ministry official.
In their Atami talks today, Kim and Mori are expected to discuss the situation on the Korean Peninsula following June's historic summit meeting in Pyongyang of top leaders from South and North Korea.
Kim and Mori are also expected to discuss ways to forge closer economic and trade relations between the two countries.
Prior to his meeting with Mori today, Kim held talks with Foreign Minister Yohei Kono on Friday evening.