An NHK poll shows one out of four respondents expects relations between Tokyo and Seoul to improve under South Korea's next president, conservative Yoon Suk-yeol.

NHK conducted the telephone survey for three days through Sunday. It contacted 2,202 randomly chosen people aged 18 or older, of whom 56 percent responded.

The survey asked if they think bilateral ties will improve now that the candidate of South Korea's largest opposition party has been elected to succeed President Moon Jae-in.

Twenty-five percent of the respondents said relations will improve, while 4 percent said they will worsen.

Fifty-nine percent said relations will remain unchanged.

In a survey conducted in May 2017, when Moon was elected president, only 7 percent of respondents expected bilateral ties to improve, while 24 percent said they would worsen.

More than half the respondents in both surveys believed that bilateral ties, which have soured over historical issues and other matters, would not change.