Feeler to Moon won't make it easy for Abe to win over Seoul

Japanese media and foreign affairs pundits are doing the guesswork: the United States will be the first country newly elected Republic of Korea President Moon Jae-in will visit, followed by China, Russia and Japan.

The Japanese government is eager to reach out to Moon - it arranged a telephone conversation between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Moon on Thursday. Tokyo also aims to organize a meeting between the two leaders on the sidelines of international conferences such as the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany, in July and the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September.

Abe's office issued a statement congratulating Moon on his election victory and saying Abe wants to meet with him at an early date for a frank exchange of views and to work together to develop a future-oriented bilateral relationship.