President Urges Japanese Leaders Not to Provoke Koreans


By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter
President Roh Moo-hyun on Monday called on Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to refrain from remarks and actions that can hurt the feelings of Koreans.

``A national leader should not behave like a thoughtless person or a politician hungry for popularity,’’ Roh said in an apparent reference to the Japanese leader. He made the speech to mark the 85th anniversary of the March 1, 1919 Independence Movement.

Roh’s criticism of Koizumi was not included in his text distributed in advance and came after reports that the Japanese leader is determined to continue to make his annual visit to the Yasukuni shrine, a memorial site for World War II war criminals.

``They’d better refrain from doing things that hurt my people,’’ he said. ``Japan should do its best to do its part, since the Koreans, their government in particular, have shown self-restraint.’’

Since taking office in April 2001, Koizumi has paid four visits to Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo inviting furious criticism from South and North Korea, China and other Asian nations, which suffered from Japanese imperialism in the early 20th century.

Japan still refuses to own up to the thousands of ``comfort women’’ who were forced to serve as sexual slaves for Japanese soldiers during World War II. Some leaders have also angered Koreans by repeatedly claiming Tok-do, the easternmost islets of South Korea, as their own territory.

President Roh asked for national efforts to overcome the residual discord resulting from conflicts between Korean independence fighters and pro-Japanese collaborators under the 1910-1945 Japanese colonial rule.

Roh pledged to illuminate the truth about the so-called pro-Japanese figures, many of who managed to stay among the affluent in South Korean society.

Roh said the North Korean nuclear issue will be resolved peacefully without fail, as the principle of a nuclear weapons-free Korean peninsula was reconfirmed in the second round of six-party talks that ended Feb. 28.

``We will equip the country with firm and more self-reliant defense capabilities, while positively using international security cooperation based on the ROK-U.S. alliance,’’ he said.

jinryu@koreatimes.co.kr