Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev said Sunday that he would visit Japan as part of an effort to build ties with his country's Pacific neighbors. Gorbachev's disclosure, at a summit-ending news conference with President Bush, came on the eve of his planned meeting in San Francisco with President Roh Tae-woo of South Korea, which is actively seeking to normalize relations. The Soviet Union wants to upgrade its outdated and inefficient production facilities, and both Japan and South Korea could be valuable sources of inexpensive technology and consumer goods that aren't available in the Soviet Union or are in such short supply that they are practically unobtainable. The Japanese had been expecting a Gorbachev visit, perhaps in the spring of 1991, but relations between the two countries have been strained by a longstanding territorial dispute. The Kuril Islands, which lie to the north of present-day Japan, were seized and settled by the Soviets at the end of World War II, and the Japanese want them returned. The dispute thus far has blocked improved trade relations between the two countries. Meanwhile, the South Koreans have launched a major drive to open relations with former Communist East Bloc countries, and are seeking new markets for their high-technology exports. But Soviet officials have sought to play down the meeting between Gorbachev and Roh, pointing to the sensitivity of relations with North Korea, the Soviets' longtime ally. Some members of the Soviet delegation also have suggested that Japanese business leaders are uneasy about the Gorbachev-Roh meeting because they view the South Koreans as competition for the Soviets' huge market and natural resources. Gorbachev, in his remarks at the news conference, said the Soviet Union would like to help build a cooperative community among Pacific nations like the one in Europe. ``We must act with due regard for those specifics'' in the Asian region, he said, ``without copying blind the European process but borrowing something from it.'' ``Of course, I think this road will be longer and more thorny,'' Gorbachev said. ``But still, it is especially necessary over there because those peoples need an opportunity to reallocate their resources to overcome a lot of social problems that have been accumulated.'' He noted the increasing contacts between the Soviet Union and India and China, countries he has visited within the last two years. ``I am planning to go on a visit to Japan so as to open that area for discussion,'' he said. ``So we're going to intensify our efforts in that direction.''
