In a televised meeting with students and other members of the public, Lee compared the relationship to Japan to an adult remaining resentful decades later about being punched by a childhood classmate who has long forgotten about the incident. “We must truly become close countries, not just geographically but also emotionally,” Lee said with a smile.

In a summit with Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, Lee agreed to restart talks on a free-trade deal. Negotiations broke down in November 2004 as both countries tried to shield key industries. The two leaders also decided to restart a plan for “shuttle diplomacy” of two summits a year and to step up exchanges, including through a new working holiday plan.

“Of course we cannot forget about the past when we think about relations between Japan and South Korea. But we must not let the past hamper moves towards the future,” Lee said after talks with Fukuda.

Lee’s left-leaning predecessor, Roh Moo-hyun, refused to visit Japan after December 2004 in anger over then-prime minister Junichiro Koizumi’s visits to a shrine that venerates Japanese war dead, including war criminals. In apparent reference to the Yasukuni shrine row, Lee said: “I don’t think we need a knee-jerk reaction every time a politician takes individual action. Politicians can express their opinions in every country.”

Lee was on the second leg of his first foreign trip as president that earlier took him to the United States, which also had uneasy relations with Roh, particularly over North Korea. Lee also met Emperor Akihito and invited him to visit Seoul, a palace spokesman said. No Japanese emperor has visited South Korea since independence.

Akihito visited China, also a victim of Japan’s wartime aggression, in October 1992, when he said he “deeply deplored” his country’s actions. His father, Hirohito, was revered as a demigod during World War II. The emperor, who has only a symbolic role under the post-war constitution, told Lee that his schedule was up to the government, the palace said. But the government signalled the time was not yet right.

“We think there will be an opportunity sometime. But we are not in a position now to consider the timing and schedule,” chief government spokesman Nobutaka Machimura said.

An official North Korean Web site blasted Lee for inviting the emperor, according to the Tokyo-based Korea News Service, which covers North Korean affairs. “Traitor Lee Myung-bak is forcing his way to sell the country to Japan, an act not even realized by successive (previous) rulers who were denounced as top rate pro-Japan traitors,” said the Web site named “comrades of our nation.”

Lee has pledged to take a tougher line over North Korea after ending a decade of rule by liberal leaders in Seoul who stressed reconciliation with their impoverished communist neighbor. Japan has tense relations with North Korea, in part due to a dispute over Pyongyang’s kidnappings of Japanese civilians in the 1970s and 1980s.

Fukuda said that Lee understood the Japanese position. “I felt encouraged. I believe Japan and South Korea will be able to cooperate more closely than ever,” Fukuda said.

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