Rocky start to Koizumi's APEC visit
Rocky start to Koizumi's APEC visit
Elaine Lies, Reuters/Pusan, South Korea
Japan's prime minister got off to a rocky start at a summit meeting of Pacific Rim leaders on Friday as host South Korea bluntly told him to stop his regular visits to a shrine honoring Japan's war dead.
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun told Japan's Junichiro Koizumi that Seoul was not interested in more apologies or national reparations, but wanted to see the visits cease.
It also wanted textbooks amended to address inaccuracies about Japan's role in World War Two and a territorial dispute over a rocky outcrop that lies midway between the two countries resolved.
"When we say we don't call on Japan to apologize anymore, it means actions are what is important, rather than repeated apologies," Roh's foreign policy adviser told reporters.
A Japanese foreign ministry official quoted Roh as saying: "The prime minister's visits, and those of other politicians, are a challenge to South Korea and give the feeling that Japan may be returning to the past."
Koizumi is feeling increasingly isolated in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum given the disputes over a variety of issues ranging from territorial feuds to Asian anger over the Yasukuni shrine visits.
Roh and Chinese President Hu Jintao raised the pressure on Wednesday by agreeing that "a neighboring country" -- clearly Japan -- had damaged friendship in the region by failing to own up fully to its past.
The summit with Roh was one of several on the sidelines of the APEC summit on Friday at which Koizumi emphasized friendship and goodwill with all, starting with China.
"There are nations that are worried about our relationship with China," he was quoted as saying by a Japanese foreign ministry official. "But friendship with China is important."
China has rebuffed Japanese overtures for a bilateral summit at APEC.
Koizumi also said that he had reconfirmed Japan's friendly relations with Peru, which has recalled its envoy and warned Tokyo not to interfere in efforts to get former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori extradited from Chile.
Fujimori, accused in Peru of corruption and authorizing death squads during his 1990-2000 rule, fled to Japan five years ago and made a surprise visit to Chile this month where he was promptly arrested.
Tokyo had declined requests to hand him over to Lima on the grounds that Fujimori, the son of Japanese immigrants to Peru, is a Japanese citizen.
Tokyo however declined Peru's request for President Alejandro Toledo to meet Koizumi, saying the Japanese leader's schedule was full.
Koizumi also appeared eager to mollify Russia, with which Japan remains remain mired in a territorial feud over four islands that has blocked the signing of a formal World War II Peace treaty 60 years after the war's end.
"Even given this problem, we will further our friendship and aim towards a solution," he was quoted as saying.
President Vladimir Putin is to visit Tokyo next week.