The head of the South Korea-Japan Parliamentarians' Union says a thousand-member delegation led by Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party will visit South Korea this year as part of efforts to improve strained bilateral ties. 

Kang, a lawmaker of South Korea's ruling Democratic Party, revealed the plan to reporters in Tokyo on Friday, following his meeting with Toshihiro Nikai, the secretary general of the Japanese ruling party, the previous day. 

Kang said Nikai promised that the group would visit before mid-August, adding the size of the delegation will be larger than a thousand-member delegation to Vietnam that was launched on Thursday. 

According to Kang, the Japanese lawmaker said it would not be good to pass down a bad relationship to future generations and emphasized the current generation’s role in enhancing ties. 

Kang said he also met with Fukushiro Nukaga, the head of a group of Japanese lawmakers promoting exchange and friendship with South Korea and affirmed that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has a strong will to improve relations between the two countries.