Japan’s Kyodo News says Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has scrapped plans to visit South Korea this year.

Kyodo quoted a Japanese government official as saying on Wednesday that it is too early for the prime minister to go to Seoul, though tensions have cooled down between Seoul and Tokyo over President Lee Myung-bak's August trip to the Dokdo islets.

In line with their shuttle diplomacy, South Korea and Japan’s leaders are to take turns visiting between the two countries. This year the Japanese prime minister is supposed to visit South Korea, since President Lee visited Kyoto last December.

Noda is instead reportedly mulling ways to hold talks with Lee on the sidelines of a summit of leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Cambodia next month.