South Korea on Tuesday blasted Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda for restating his view that Japanese Class-A war criminals convicted by an Allied tribunal were in fact not war criminals.
Noda's "remarks are inappropriate as they negate Japan's past history of aggression, and they also are not coincident with the official position of the Japanese government, expressed by prime ministers' statements," the South Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The statement said South Korea "urges a Japanese politician, who is in a responsible position, to look squarely into history in a humble attitude."
Noda, who will likely run for president of the Democratic Party of Japan and thereby prime minister, reiterated Monday his view that Japan's A-class war criminals are not war criminals, and thus there is no merit in asking a prime minister not to visit Yasukuni Shrine, which honors, along with the nation's war dead, several convicted Class-A war criminals.
South Korea and China see the Tokyo shrine as a symbol of Japanese militarism and have been highly critical of visits there by Cabinet members in the past.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his entire Cabinet did not visit the shrine Monday, the 66th anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II.