Japanese lawmaker Seishiro Eto expressed his intention to visit North Korea next week to discuss the normalization of diplomatic ties.

Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun reported that Japanese lower house vice speaker Eto is planning the visit as part of a delegation of two bipartisan parliamentary groups that advocate the normalization of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

If invited by the North, Eto plans to leave for the trip on the eighth and watch the North Korea-Japan preliminary match for the World Cup on November 15th in Pyongyang.

Eto said in a news conference on Wednesday that he hopes to make even minor progress in normalizing Japan's diplomatic ties with North Korea. He said he would not leave out prior discussions with the Japanese government in his talks with North Korea.

Diplomatic relations between Japan and North Korea has been severed since August of 2008.