A South Korean city will not take part in an annual event at a World Heritage site in the Fukuoka Prefecture city of Munakata this year due to deteriorating relations between the neighboring countries, the Munakata government said Wednesday.
Gimhae, South Korea, which has sister-city relations with the Japanese municipality, informed it in early August that it would not attend this year. The South Korean city has been represented at the Miare Festival, an October ritual at the Munakata Taisha shrine, by its mayor and the speaker of its city assembly every year since 2008, except last year when the event was canceled due to a typhoon.
The Gimhae government said it "cannot ignore public sentiment concerning the current state of relations between Japan and South Korea," according to the Munakata city government. The feud between the countries over wartime history and trade policy has been escalating.