LEAD: S. Korea's Lee arrives in Tokyo for talks with Fukuda

TOKYO, April 20 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH LEE'S ARRIVAL)

South Korean President Lee Myung Bak arrived in Tokyo on Sunday evening for talks the following day with Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda that will mark the resumption of ''shuttle diplomacy'' between the two countries.

Fukuda and Lee are expected to reaffirm their intentions to develop closer ties and to work together, as well as trilaterally with the United States, on tackling issues shared by the international community such as North Korea's nuclear ambitions and climate change.

The two leaders are likely to agree to expand bilateral exchanges in economic, cultural, youth and other ''nonpolitical'' areas as part of efforts to reinforce the foundation of mutual interests, diplomatic sources said.

But they will probably fall short of agreeing to restart negotiations on concluding a bilateral economic partnership agreement which have been suspended since November 2004, according to a Japanese Foreign Ministry official.

The negotiations stalled because Tokyo rejected South Korea's demand that Japan open its market to agricultural products, and the diplomatic sources said South Korean business circles apparently remain wary over the situation.

After the summit meeting Monday morning, Lee is scheduled to take part in a luncheon hosted by the Japan Business Federation, the country's most powerful business lobby known as Nippon Keidanren, the official said.

Lee, accompanied by his wife Kim Yoon Ok, will meet with Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko and then take part in a dialogue forum with about 100 Japanese people for a TV program to be aired late in the day by Tokyo Broadcasting System.

The president will return to Seoul after attending a dinner party hosted by Fukuda which will be attended by about 80 people, the official said, adding that the number of guests is quite large for such an occasion.

Lee is in Japan on the second leg of a two-nation tour -- his first overseas trip since taking office in February -- which also took him to the United States where he and President George W. Bush stood united Saturday in urging North Korea to provide a full account of its nuclear activities in a manner that can be scrutinized by other countries.

The so-called ''shuttle diplomacy,'' or reciprocal visits between the top leaders of Japan and South Korea at least once a year, was agreed in December 2004 by then Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and then South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun during their talks in Kagoshima Prefecture.

Based on the accord, Koizumi visited Seoul in June 2005 but Roh canceled his trip to Japan planned for December that year after Koizumi visited the war-related Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo in October.

The last trip to Japan by a South Korean president was made by Roh in December 2004.

Fukuda traveled to Seoul in February to attend Lee's inauguration ceremony and was the first leader to hold talks with the new South Korean president during which they agreed to resume ''shuttle diplomacy'' and develop a ''new era'' of bilateral relations.

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