South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon will meet with Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe next week to urge him to refrain from visiting Tokyo's war-related Yasukuni Shrine as a first step toward normalizing bilateral relations, ministry officials said Sunday.
Ban will deliver Korea's position that the Yasukuni Shrine visit in October by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has adversely affected bilateral relations, and that Seoul hopes Abe, the front-runner to become Japan's next prime minister, will change the situation, they said.
Ban's meeting with Abe, expected to take place on Wednesday, will come on the heels of reports that Abe visited the shrine on April 15 before the shrine's spring rites.
South Korea, along with North Korea and China, has denounced Koizumi's visits to the controversial shrine that honors 2.5 million Japanese war dead, including 14 convicted Class-A war criminals from World War II.
Ban will leave for Japan on Monday and attend the funeral of former Japanese Prime Minsiter Ryutaro Hashimoto as a Korean government delegate on Tuesday, the officials said.
"The issue of whether he will visit the shrine in the capacity of prime minister will be the main subject, and Ban will deliver our government's stance that Abe, as Japan's next-generation leader, should refrain from the visit," one of the foreign ministry officials, said, requesting anonymity.
Seoul expects Ban will play a role as the South Korean government's special envoy in the meeting, as Abe is almost certain to succeed Koizumi in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's presidential election in September, another foreign official said.
"It holds great significance that Ban meets with the likely next prime minister of Japan and discusses a new kind of bilateral relationship at this time when it has hit the bottom during the latter part of Koizumi's administration," the official said.
Abe has expressed his reservations on whether he will visit the shrine once he takes the top post, contrary to Koizumi who has been outspoken about his intention to visit the shrine.
On Sunday, Koizumi said he is ready to visit the Yasukuni Shrine "at any time" and suggested he may make another visit before he steps down in September.
"I can visit the shrine at any time but will decide appropriately on the timing of the visit," he told reporters during his visit to an annual ceremony in the city of Hiroshima to mark the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing there.
"I never think it is bad that a Japanese prime minister expresses condolences to the war dead in a Japanese facility," he said.
Seoul, Aug. 6 (Yonhap News)
S. Korean Foreign Minister to urge Abe to refrain from shrine visit |
