TOKYO, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- South Korea's foreign minister said the Japanese prime minister's visit to a controversial war shrine made it difficult for Korea's president to visit Japan.
In a meeting in Tokyo with Nobutaka Machimura, his Japanese counterpart, Ban Ki-moon said the South Korean people "are disappointed. They feel offended, and the visit isn't internationally understood," the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun reported Friday.
Ban asked Japan to construct a new memorial to the war dead to replace the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, which includes known war criminals among the thousands of war dead it honors.
Ban also said South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun was unlikely to make his planned visit to Japan in December. "Under the circumstances, (Roh's visit) appears to be difficult," Ban said.
Machimura told Ban that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to the controversial shrine was meant to mourn the war dead and to express Japan's resolution never to wage war again.
Machimura said the government would decide on a replacement for the Yasukuni Shrine after studying the views of the Japanese public. He also promised to convey South Korea's request to Koizumi.
