While South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun will present a calm front while playing the role of gracious host to Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Monday, the state guest will face a torrent of protest from an angry public.

His whirlwind visit is aimed at mending fences between Seoul and Tokyo, damaged by Tokyo's history distortions and claim over South Korea's Dokdo islets.

With nationalistic sentiment running high in ROK, however, throngs of Koreans plan to rally against Koizumi's visit and call for Tokyo to apologize for its wartime crimes.

Protestors have already played the popular song "Dokdo is our (Korean) land" at full volume in front of the Japanese embassy in downtown Seoul.

Its main gate and red-brick walls remain cordoned off by an army of riot police and a line of police buses.

A simultaneous demonstration by three nationalistic civic groups in front of the embassy and Cheong Wa Dae, the presidential office, kicked off the day's protests.

"Prime Minister Koizumi is not qualified to set foot in this country as he has never atoned for the past and only tried to beef up Japan's imperialism," Tongil Yondae said in a statement issued in front of Cheong Wa Dae, the venue for the Seoul-Tokyo summit.

The civic group argued that it was meaningless to hold the summit at a time when Japan is continuing to live up to its imperialist practices, demonstrated recently by an attempt to revise its "peace constitution," and Koizumi's visits to the Yasukuni Shrine that honors a number of convicted war criminals.

A group of former sex slaves who served Japan's Imperial Army also plan to take to the streets for a rally organized by the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan.

"We will hold a rally and a press conference to protest against Koizumi's visit to Seoul in Gwanghwamun at 1 p.m.," the civic group said.

Activists said they would continue the protests until Tuesday, when Koizumi is due to wrap up his visit to Seoul.

Source: Xinhua