Japan's prime minister yesterday accused Chinese and South Korean leaders of turning a spiritual issue into a diplomatic one by refusing to meet him one-on-one because of his visits to a war shrine honoring Japanese war dead.
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's annual visits to the Yasukuni shrine, which honors Japanese veterans including convicted war criminals from World War II, have outraged countries that suffered under Japanese wartime atrocities.
But Koizumi said he was baffled by Chinese and South Korean leaders turning down meetings with him because of the visits, saying he has the right to express respect to a country's war dead, and that the Yasukuni visits merely show his resolve to never wage war again.
PHOTO: AP
"I do not understand why foreign governments interfere with a spiritual issue and try to turn it into a diplomatic issue," he said in a nationally televised news conference marking the start of the new year.
Koizumi reiterated his view that the visits were a matter of an individual's freedom of spirit and thought, making it hard to understand criticism of them.
South Korea responded quickly, urging japan to heed its neighbors' complaints.
"The key to the South Korea-Japan problem and maintaining cooperative relationships among nations in the region is for Japan's government to try to win trust and respect from related countries with a correct stance on the perception of history," Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said yesterday at a regular news briefing.
Koizumi has continued his annual visits to the shrine despite demands from China and South Korea that he stop. The two countries suffered under Japan's World War II-era military atrocities and brutal colonial rule.
He said it was up to Beijing and Seoul to resume top-level contacts with Japan.
"I have never tried to close dialogue with China and South Korea. The door remains open," he said. "Every nation has differences of opinion with others, and we should not close down dialogue just because of one problem."
Koizumi said that economic and personal exchanges are flourishing between Japan and the other two countries, and that he wants to continue efforts to promote good ties despite the friction.
Koizumi also reaffirmed his belief that Tokyo's defense relations with Washington are more critical than its ties with other nations.
"The United States is the only nation in the world that sees an attack on Japan as an attack on itself," he said.
However, he denied he was suggesting that Japan's relations with the US are the only ones that matter.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
RSS