UPDATE1: Japan PM to join China, S. Korea leaders to visit Fukushima+

TOKYO/BEIJING, May 18 Kyodo -
(EDS: UPDATING, CHANGING DATELINE, INCORPORATING STORY HEADLINED: WEN, LEE TO VISIT FUKUSHIMA, SENDAI DURING JAPAN TRIPS)
Leaders of Japan, China and South Korea will visit the city of Fukushima on Saturday afternoon prior to their weekend trilateral summit to meet residents affected by the nuclear emergency at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant triggered by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, government sources said Wednesday.
The three leaders -- Prime Minister Naoto Kan, Premier Wen Jiabao and President Lee Myung Bak -- will encourage evacuees at a gymnasium of an athletic park in the city, around 60 kilometers northwest of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
It will be the first time foreign leaders have visited Fukushima Prefecture since the March disasters.
Kan has been keen for Lee and Wen to visit the northeastern Japanese city when they travel to Japan on Saturday and Sunday for the summit as a way of easing concerns about safety in the region and to quell rumors about radioactive contamination from the Fukushima plant, the sources said.
China and South Korea separately announced that Wen and Lee will visit Fukushima and Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture, two of the areas hit hard by the magnitude-9.0 earthquake, ensuing tsunami, and nuclear emergency.
''I believe that ties between Japan and China, as well as between Japan and South Korea have deepened (since the disaster) and will deepen,'' Kan told a news conference in Tokyo.
While acknowledging that relations between Tokyo and Beijing were tense last year over a territorial dispute, Kan thanked China for promptly expressing its sympathy for the disaster victims and offering aid, saying Wen's Japan visit is a ''big step toward creating better Japan-China ties.''
Based on the visiting leaders' itinerary, Wen and Lee will arrive at Sendai airport on Saturday morning and set off on their respective programs before going to Fukushima. Kan will travel from Tokyo to Fukushima and wait there to welcome the two leaders.
The three leaders will then visit the gymnasium, stay for about an hour and meet with Fukushima Gov. Yuhei Sato before moving to Tokyo for their dinner.
In line with Kan's strong wish, Japan had initially planned to hold the opening ceremony for their trilateral summit in the city but this was shelved due to difficulty in securing a venue.
At a press briefing in Beijing, Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Hu Zhengyue said that the premier himself decided on his Fukushima visit, which is to ''convey the Chinese people's goodwill, care and comfort for the local people and to root for the local people in their post-disaster efforts as well as to demonstrate Chinese support for their reconstruction efforts.''
Observers believe Japan's support and assistance to China in the wake of a massive quake in Sichuan Province in 2008 prompted Wen to make his decision to visit the affected areas. They also believe that through the visit Wen will try to improve relations with Japan.
Asked whether China is ready to extend more assistance to disaster-hit areas in Japan, Hu said, ''China has some ideas in mind, but we need to talk them over with the Japanese side.''
''The basic position is that we are willing to provide necessary assistance and support to Japan,'' he said. ''We are willing to cooperate with Japan in its reconstruction.''
South Korean's presidential office, meanwhile, said Lee will visit places in Sendai where a team of South Korean specialists worked for days to support rescue operations and search for victims.
The trilateral summit, where boosting cooperation in disaster management and nuclear safety after the March disasters will be high on the agenda, is the fourth of its kind since the inaugural meeting in Fukuoka Prefecture in 2008. The three countries have since taken turns as host.