Former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso is reportedly seeking to meet President Lee Myung-bak this week to deliver Tokyo’s message on improving the bilateral ties strained over the diplomatic spat surrounding Dokdo.

Kyodo News reported Saturday that Aso, who held the premiership from September 2008 for one year, was to visit Seoul on Sunday and have talks with Lee at the presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae the next day.

Aso of the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party is expected to deliver a message from Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda or Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba.

Aso is to come here as the bilateral cooperation committee consisting of the two neighbors’ leading business and political figures holds its general assembly in Seoul for two days from Sunday. He is to represent the Japanese side.

Tokyo seeks to bring the row over Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo to the International Court of Justice, a move Seoul has dismissed as it appears to be part of Japan’s strategy to make the row an international dispute.

Its refusal to recognize its colonial atrocities and make a sincere apology for them has angered Koreans. Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula from 1910-45.

Aso is known to be a close associate of Shinzo Abe, who returned last month to the top post of the LDP, pledging to make Japan a “strong nation” ― remarks highlighting his conservative, nationalist policy orientation.

By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)