Japan's Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya will fly to Seoul for talks with his counterpart on Monday amid an ongoing political crisis in South Korea over short-lived martial law.
Iwaya will be hosted by South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul in what would be their first one-on-one meeting.
The talks are "expected to center on discussions on efforts to continue the positive momentum for the bilateral relations that have significantly improved since" President Yoon Suk Yeol came into office in 2022, the Seoul-based Yonhap News reported.
Before the martial law decree by Yoon, who has since been impeached, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba had said he was planning to travel to Seoul early January.
After Yoon's failed move, Ishiba said Tokyo was watching the situation in South Korea with "grave concern."
He later spoke to his South Korean counterpart Han Duck Soo, to maintain close communication between the two sides.
Han, who was appointed the acting president in place of Yoon, has also been impeached and was succeeded by Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok, who is now leading state affairs as the acting president.
Since then, the state of affairs remains in disarray in Seoul with government agencies in tug with each other as investigators seek to detain Yoon.
After US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Seoul last week, Japanese Foreign Minister Iwaya would be the second high-level foreign official to visit South Korea since the martial law crisis began.
Under Yoon, Seoul has closed ranks with Washington and Tokyo toward a trilateral alliance amid the expanding influence of China in the wider Asia-Pacific region besides security tensions on the Korean Peninsula, where the divided Koreas remain in a state of war.
Tokyo and Seoul are two critical allies of the US in the region and both nations host thousands of American troops.
To win confidence in ties with Tokyo, Yoon last March said South Korea would compensate its victims of Japan's wartime forced labor without contributions from those responsible for the crimes during the World War II era.
The two sides will commemorate 60 years of normalizing ties this year.
The two foreign ministers are expected to discuss holding a trilateral summit with their Chinese counterpart this year.
