China summons Japanese ambassador over shrine visit

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi summoned the Japanese ambassador on Thursday to lodge "strong opposition" to the visit of Japan's prime minister to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine for war dead.               

The announcement was carried by China's official Xinhua news agency.      

Meanwhile, South Korea said Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine for war dead was a deplorable and anachronistic act that damaged ties between the two countries.           

"We cannot withhold regret and anger over the visit," said Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Yoo Jin-ryong. The visit was an anachronistic act, he said.          

Earlier, a statement released by the US embassy in Tokyo took note of Abe's expression of remorse, but said "the United States hopes that both Japan and its neighbors will find constructive ways to deal with sensitive issues from the past."                  

Thursday's visit came on the first anniversary of Abe's taking office as prime minister. Abe visited previously when he was not prime minister but not during an earlier one-year term in office in 2006-2007.             

Visits to Yasukuni by Japanese politicians have long been a point of friction with China and South Korea, because of Japan's brutal aggression during World War II.


REUTERS