SEOUL, South Korea  Rhee Han-soo has spent a lifetime pursuing a passion that he refuses to discuss even with his closest friends.

Mr. Rhee, an 82-year-old retired dentist, is one of a small group of Koreans who still write traditional Japanese poetry  a pursuit that many people of his generation consider just short of sacrilegious because of the indignities inflicted on their country during Japan’s colonial rule.

“Here, people look up to you if you write poetry in English and publish it in America or England,” Mr. Rhee said. “But if you write Japanese poems, they despise you or dismiss you as a fool.”

Mr. Rhee has published thousands of haiku, minimalist 17-syllable poems, but only in Japan.

As South Korea’s new president, Lee Myung-bak, and Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda of Japan prepare to meet next month to chart what they say will be a new relationship between their countries, Mr. Rhee’s experience helps illustrate what Japanese and Koreans mean when they call each other “close yet distant neighbors.”