Senior Vice Foreign Minister Shigeo Uetake will visit Seoul next week to help kick off a year of friendship exchanges between Japan and South Korea.

The event Monday in Seoul will feature performances by drum troupes from the two nations and an opening ceremony that Uetake will attend as the leader of the Japanese government's delegation, the Foreign Ministry said.

"Japan hopes the year of Japan-South Korea national exchange will create an opportunity for numerous exchange events in various fields, including at the grassroots level, to deepen mutual understanding among the people of both countries," the ministry said in a statement.

A similar event will be held in Tokyo on Jan. 28, with a different set of artists performing, the ministry said.

Through the nearly 130 events scheduled so far, each country will introduce its traditional culture, lifestyle and entertainment to the other, as well as host expositions on each other's industrial cultures, ministry officials said.

There will also be events to promote youth, regional and sports exchanges between the countries, as well as a TV program and several movies made through collaboration between producers and casts from both sides.

In October 1999, the late Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and then South Korean Prime Minister Kim Jong Pil agreed to designate 2002 as a year for bilateral exchanges, based on a proposal made a year earlier by South Korean President Kim Dae Jung to use the World Cup soccer finals, which the two countries will jointly host this year, as a chance to promote more exchanges.

The quadrennial soccer competition, the first to be held in Asia, will take place from May 31 to June 30.