S. Korea blasts Koizumi's shrine visit

• boy in blues

  5 Jan 06, 00:54

  http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/view.php?StoryID=20060104-012335-5084r
  
  S. Korea blasts Koizumi's shrine visit
  
  SEOUL, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- South Korea's foreign minister Wednesday blasted his Japanese counterpart Junichiro Koizum's for defense of his controversial war shrine visit.
  
  Earlier that day, Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi criticized China and South Korea for cutting off dialogue with Japan due to a dispute over his visits to the Yasukuni Shrine.
  
  "I cannot understand the attitude of foreign governments in which they meddle in the issue of minds and take them as diplomatic issues," Koizumi said in a new year's news conference.
  
  In a quick response, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon urged Japanese leaders to adopt a correct understanding of modern history to improve ties with its neighbors.
  
  "The key to closer regional cooperation is for Japan to have the correct perception of history," Ban told a weekly news briefing.
  
  "The South Korea-Japan relations were strained last year due to the (shrine) issues. It is a very unfortunate thing," Ban said.
  
  "I hope Japanese leaders will have the correct perception of history, as not only South Korea but other neighboring nations have similar positions on the issues."
• boy in blues

  5 Jan 06, 00:55

  Japan reclaimed sovereignty over Dokdo, a group of islets located in the East Sea (Sea of Japan), last year. The small islets were called Takeshima in Japanese, Dokdo in Korean language.
  
  Meanwhile, early 2005 Japanese education authorities' authorization of several editions of school textbooks which distort Japan's aggression past also aroused anger in South Korea.
  
  The situation was made worse by Koizumi again paying homage to Yasukuni Shrine in October 2005 Enditem