SEOUL, South Korea - South Korean officials warned Sunday that Seoul
will file an immediate protest to Tokyo if Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi visits a war shrine which critics say glorifies the country's brutal
militarist past.
Koizumi, who has worshipped at Yasukuni Shrine five times since taking office
in 2001, suggested last week he plans to visit again to mark the August 15
anniversary of Japan's World War II surrender.
South Korea "is prepared to immediately lodge a protest in case Koizumi
visits the shrine on August 15," a South Korean Foreign Ministry official said
on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the issue.
August 15 is a highly symbolic date in South Korea because it also marks the
country's liberation from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule.
South Korea also plans to convey its regret to Japan by summoning the
Japanese ambassador in Seoul, and by sending the South Korean ambassador in
Tokyo to Japan's Foreign Ministry, the official said.
The official also dismissed as "totally groundless" a report by Kyodo News
agency that South Korea and China had agreed to accept one visit to Yasukuni a
year by future prime ministers if Koizumi stays away for the rest of his term,
set to end next month.
South Korea and China have long demanded that Koizumi stop his trips to the
shrine, which honors Japan's 2.5 million war dead, including executed Japanese
war criminals from World War II.
Koizumi says he is merely paying respects to fallen soldiers and praying for
peace at Yasukuni, but Seoul and Beijing view his pilgrimages as a sign Japan
hasn't truly repented for its militaristic past, souring their relations.
In addition to ruling Korea as a colony, Japan also occupied wide swathes of
China beginning in the 1930s, and much of Southeast Asia from late 1941 until
its defeat in the war.
Japanese leaders, including Koizumi, have issued repeated apologies for the
country's wartime actions, but occasional remarks by Japanese politicians in
support of colonial rule and the war have fueled tensions.
