hankyoreh

The South Korean government on Tuesday expressed regrets that Japan's prime minister sent a gift last month to a controversial shrine that honors convicted war criminals from World War II.

"Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's offering last month to the Yasukuni shrine, which glorifies the country's past expansionist invasions and houses war criminals, runs counter to the correct interpretation of history that provides the very foundation of peace and stability in the region," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "Our government greatly regrets this." The gift, a flowerpot bearing a banner with the Japanese prime minister's name and his official title, was the first sent to the shrine by a Japanese prime minister in 20 years.

Abe was apparently trying to avoid criticism from neighboring South Korea and China, which had labeled previous visits to the Tokyo shrine by his predecessors as an attempt to whitewash Japan's war atrocities.

The Japanese prime minister has yet to make an official visit to the controversial shrine since coming into office late last year, but has repeatedly defended visits by others and his predecessors.

Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula from 1910-1945, and millions of Koreans were either killed or forced into labor or sexual slavery, according to historians.

Many South Koreans believe Tokyo has yet to sincerely atone for its past aggression.

SEOUL, May 8 (Yonhap News)