ID :
182898
Wed, 05/18/2011 - 13:04
Auther :

Lee to visit quake-hit areas before three-way summit in Tokyo

(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with presidential office announcement; CHANGES headline)
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak will visit two disaster-hit areas in Japan before heading to Tokyo for an annual summit this weekend with his Japanese and Chinese counterparts, the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae announced Wednesday.
On Saturday, Lee will first stop over in Sendai, one of the regions hit hardest in March's earthquake and tsunami, before joining Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on a visit to Fukushima, which is plagued by a quake-triggered nuclear accident, presidential spokeswoman Kim Hee-jung said.
The three leaders will then head to Tokyo for the summit, she said.
Sendai is the region where a team of South Korean rescue specialists worked for days to help rescue efforts and search for victims. They were the first foreign rescue team to arrive in Japan following the disaster.
Lee will visit the places where the Korean rescue team worked, the spokeswoman said.
The venue for the two-day summit had been uncertain after Japan's proposal to hold the meeting's opening ceremony in Fukushima went awry due to China's opposition.
Talks on enhancing nuclear safety and related cooperation are expected to dominate the three-way summit.
Lee is scheduled to return home on Sunday.

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