S.Korea regrets Japanese PM's visit to Yasukuni Shrine

Home>>World

Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, January 02, 2004

S.Korea regrets Japanese PM's visit to Yasukuni Shrine

South Korea Thursday, Jan. 1, expressed regret over Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to a controversial shrine honoring Japanese war dead including World War II criminals.

DISCUSSION

CHINESE

SEND TO FRIEND

South Korea Thursday expressed regret over Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to a controversial shrine honoring Japanese war dead including World War II criminals.

"Our government expresses deep regret that Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi paid homage at Yasukuni Shrine housing mortuary tablets to war criminals who undermined world peace and inflicted intolerable damage and pain on our people," South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Shin Bong-kil said in a statement.

"We strongly urge him not to visit the shrine again."

It was the first time that the South Korean government directly demanded the Japanese prime minister stop his annual shrine visit.

Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo is dedicated to 2.5 million Japanese war dead, including a number of Class-A war criminals who fought for Japan in World War II.

Shin said that South Korea cannot understand why Japan's top leader insists on visiting the controversial shrine despite opposition from the South Korean government.

"We feel anger mixed with worry about the fact that the feelings of our people were hurt again," he said.

Koizumi should respect the positions of its neighboring nations and the feelings of their peoples if he really wants to develop friendly ties with these countries, the spokesman added.

Source: Xinhua

Questions?Comments? Click here

China lodges solemn representations over Japanese PM' shrine visit

Japanese PM Koizumi visits war criminal shrine

Will China's rise trigger Sino-US confrontation? ( 47 Messages)

China may participate in reconstruction of Iraq ( 8 Messages)

Gas field blowout kills 191in SW China, 290-odd hospitalized ( 32 Messages)

HK singer Anita Mui dies of cancer ( 7 Messages)

China offers emergency humanitarian aid to Iran ( 14 Messages)