WRAP Japanese royal couple on historic visit, day two

Описание: (30 May 2002)

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1. Car arrives carrying Japan's royal couple
2. Japanese royal couple greeted at Changdeok Palace
3. Royal couple sign visitors' book
4. Wide Palace compound
5. Royal couple walk through grounds
7. Royal couple talking to old Korean women

POOL
8. President Kim Dae Jung and Prince Takamado walk into room
9. Royal couple greet dignitaries
10. Various photo-op with President Kim and Prince Takamado

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11. Various Royal couple walking down Insa-dong street

STORYLINE:

Prince Takamado and his wife Princess Hisako of Japan have met South Korean President Kim Dae Jung on the second day of their official visit to South Korea on the eve of the jointly hosted World Cup tournament.

The royal couple also visited Seoul's Changdeok Palace as part of a six-day itinerary visiting several Korean historical sites. They stopped to talk to two older Korean women who had lived under Japanese colonial rule.

Later, the Royal couple took a walk along a Seoul street and briefly browsed in shops.

Relations between South Korea and Japan are still thorny nearly 60 years after the end of the Second World War and the period of Japanese occupation which ended in 1945.
President Kim had hoped Japan's Emperor Akihito himself would make a landmark visit to Korea for the opening ceremony of the World Cup, but Tokyo feared lingering antipathy towards Japan.

Relations between the countries plummeted last year due to a row over Japan's depiction of its war record in history books. This was then compounded by Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi's visit to the Tokyo's Yasukuni war shrine. But in a gesture of reconciliation, the South Korean government invited the Prince - who serves as the honorary president of Japan's Football Association - in an effort to improve relations.

The royal couple will attend the World Cup's opening ceremony on Friday and are scheduled to watch two more World Cup matches before returning home on June 3.

This is the first official visit by Japanese royalty since the end of World War II, with football's capacity to build bridges between former enemies being called upon again.

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