South Korea's Foreign Ministry on Thursday summoned the Japanese ambassador to lodge an official protest against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's remarks defending his Cabinet members' visits to Yasukuni Shrine.
The protest was filed with Ambassador Koro Bessho a day after Abe said "my ministers will not yield to any kind of intimidation" and that they are free to "pay respects and worship the precious souls of the war dead."
He also raised eyebrows in South Korea and other countries invaded by Imperial Japanese forces in the past by suggesting that what constitutes an "aggression" really depends on the point of view of individual countries, as there is no internationally fixed definition.