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US, South Korea and China react to controversial war shrine visit

South Korea on Thursday expressed anger at Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to a controversial war shrine, calling it “anachronistic behaviour”.

“We can’t help deploring and expressing anger at the prime minister’s visit to the Yasukuni shrine... despite concerns and warnings by neighbouring countries,” Culture Minister Yoo Jin-Ryong told reporters.

“The visit... is anachronistic behaviour that fundamentally damages not only relations between the South and Japan but also stability and cooperation in Northeast Asia,” he said.

The comment came hours after Abe made his first visit since taking office last December to the shrine, which commemorates around 2.5 million Japanese war dead including several high-level war criminals.

South Korea and China see it as a symbol of Japan’s failure to repent its 20^th century warmongering.

Yoo said the shrine honoured those who inflicted “indescribable” pain and suffering on Koreans during Japan’s 1910-45 occupation of the peninsula.

“Japan, if it genuinely seeks to make an active contribution to world peace, first needs to build trust with neighbouring countries... through thorough self-reflection and apology... instead of denying its past and glorifying past aggression,” he said.

Bilateral relations have been icy for the past year, partly due to a dispute over Seoul-controlled islets also claimed by Tokyo.

Relations were further strained when a group of Japanese ministers and politicians visited Yasukuni in August.

Japan’s militaristic past has left a bitter legacy in China and both Koreas.

Seoul and Beijing have refused to hold formal bilateral summits with Abe, whom they see as hawkish on the issues of territory and history.

The United States was also “disappointed” by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to the Yasukuni war shrine, which will raise regional tensions, its embassy said Thursday

“Japan is a valued ally and friend. Nevertheless, the United States is disappointed that Japan’s leadership has taken an action that will exacerbate tensions with Japan’s neighbours,” a written statement said.

China strongly condemned Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to the flashpoint Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo Thursday, saying it glorified Japan’s “history of militaristic aggression”.

“We strongly protest and seriously condemn the Japanese leader’s acts,” foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement immediately after Abe’s visit to the shrine, the first by an incumbent Japanese prime minister since 2006.

China would make “solemn representations” to Tokyo over his actions, the ministry said, and the Japanese embassy in Beijing said a meeting between Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong and visiting Japanese lawmakers had been cancelled.