Xinhua - English

Special Report: Koizumi's war shrine visit draws harsh criticism

BEIJING, Aug 16 (Xinhua) -- Further criticism was directed at Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Wednesday after his visit to a notorious Tokyo war shrine on Tuesday amid wide protests from Japan's neighboring countries.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) joined China and South Korea in denouncing Koizumi's visit to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japan's 2.5 million war dead, including 14 Class-A war criminals.

The DPRK named Japan as a "cancer" country in Asia and warned that ties between the two countries would go from "bad to worse."

The visit attempted to "justify the history of the aggression and crimes committed by Japan against those countries in the past and honor the departed souls of the militarists," said the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Koizumi has "thus abandoned his commitment, rubbing salt into the wounds of the Korean people and making DPRK-Japan relations go from bad to worse," KCNA said.

South Korea, which lashed out at the visit harshly on Tuesday, upgraded its protests, declaring on Wednesday that its leader would not hold summit meetings with Japanese leaders who visited the war shrine.

"Whoever becomes Japan's next prime minister, we will keep our stance, expecting Japan to make the effort to earn the trust of the international community," said Seo Joo-seok, the security advisor of South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun.

Seo's comment was widely regarded as a warning to Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, who is hopeful of becoming the next prime minister after Koizumi steps down next month.

Ties between South Korea and Japan have become increasingly chilly. Last year, Roh declared "diplomatic war" against Tokyo in a dispute over a group of desolate islands claimed by the two neighbors, as well as over the Japanese leader's visits to the Tokyo shrine.

In Japan, domestic opposition to the shrine visit has been on an upsurge.

Koizumi's wrong deed has not only aroused domestic confusion, but also has promoted nationalism and led Japanese diplomacy into a dead end, the daily Asahi Shimbun said in an editorial, accusing the prime minister of leaving a "negative legacy" to the next administration.

The Daily News said Koizumi could not easily include the shrine visit in his "personal capacity," which has been used as an excuse by the prime minister for his visits to the shrine over the past several years.

Instead, Koizumi, in the post of prime minister, represents the Japanese people, it said.

A July opinion poll conducted by the Asahi Shimbun showed 57 percent of the respondents as being opposed to Koizumi's shrine visit.

The United States, a steadfast ally of Japan, has declined to criticize Koizumi's shrine visit, but the U.S. media reported widely on the protests against the visit, saying the move had blemished Koizumi's last days in office.

Koizumi prayed at the Yasukuni Shrine on Tuesday, "choosing the most politically sensitive and diplomatically explosive day" for his last visit to the shrine, while still being in office, the New York Times said.

"U.S. officials worried that these annual visits were needlessly straining Japan's relations with China," it said.

A report carried by The Washington Post said rifts do exist within Japan itself over the issue of the shrine visits by Koizumi, but it also pointed out that an increasing number of Japanese citizens have started opposing prayer offerings by their leaders at the controversial shrine.

Koizumi's shrine visits once came under fire during his June visit to the United States.

The Chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on International Relations, Henry J. Hyde, in April sent a letter to the speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, demanding that Koizumi not be invited to deliver a speech to Congress during his visit, unless Tokyo pledged that the Japanese leader would not pay any more shrine visits after returning home. Enditem