National News

Koizumi stirs controversy with sudden visit to Yasukuni Shrine

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made a surprise visit to Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Jan. 14 where he said he paid tribute "as the prime minister" and vowed that Japan would "never again wage war."

In an apparent expression of displeasure at Koizumi's visit, South Korean President Kim Dae Jung abruptly canceled a meeting with Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi, who was in the South Korean capital to cement bilateral cooperation.

The shrine honors Class-A war criminals along with Japan's war dead and is regarded by some as a symbol of the nation's militarist past.

Koizumi has now visited the shrine three times since taking office in April 2001.

The prime minister told reporters that he believed the cancellation of Kim's meeting with Kawaguchi was due to a scheduling problem.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda also rejected the idea that the cancellation was related to Koizumi's visit to the shrine.

But South Korean Ambassador to Japan Cho Se Hyung told reporters, "I'm sure the president also very much regrets that the visit (to the shrine), which the South Korean government opposes, has been repeated."

Cho's remarks came after a meeting with Vice Foreign Minister Yukio Takeuchi at the Foreign Ministry to protest Koizumi's visit to the shrine.

Meanwhile, Kawaguchi was able to meet with Choi Sung Hong, South Korean minister of foreign affairs and trade, and the two reaffirmed the importance of bilateral cooperation in response to North Korea's nuclear development program.

Following North Korea's declaration Jan. 10 that it is withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Kawaguchi and Choi agreed to urge Pyongyang to rescind its declaration and called on the reclusive state to immediately scrap its nuclear development program.

Shukan ST: Jan. 24, 2003

(C) All rights reserved