Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se on Monday canceled his planned trip to Tokyo in protest against a visit by Japanese Cabinet ministers to a controversial war shrine venerating top World War II criminals.

Japan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso, National Public Safety Commission chairman Keiji Furuya and other ranking officials paid tribute to the Yasukuni Shrine on Sunday, while Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent flowers.

The South Korean Foreign Ministry expressed “deep concern and regret,” criticizing them for paying respects to a place that “enshrines war criminals together and glorifies an aggressive war that instigated enormous damage and pain for the people in neighboring countries.”

“We once again strongly urge the Japanese government to cease history-disregarding, anachronistic acts immediately and to conduct responsible behavior based on the correct perception of history so as to restore trust from neighboring nations,” spokesman Cho Tai-young told a news conference.

The two countries’ relations appear to be quickly nudging downward at a time when their cooperation is increasingly crucial given North Korea’s relentless threats of nuclear destruction and “thermonuclear war.”

Though not publicly announced yet, Yun’s first trip since taking office was immediately called off.

He was expected to explain the new Seoul government’s foreign policy and discuss North Korea and other regional issues with his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida and other officials on Friday and Saturday.

Seoul officials were startled in particular by the participation of Aso, who attended President Park Geun-hye’s inauguration ceremony and separately met with her in February as Abe’s special envoy.

“Our constant pursuit and request has been to maintain friendly relations between the two countries based on the right historical understanding,” a senior Foreign Ministry official told reporters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

“The cancelation of the trip is a corresponding step (to the officials’ visit to the Yasukuni shrine).”

In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga drew a line at taking a governmental position on the ministers’ worship.

“My understanding is that the three paid tributes to the shrine in their private capacity,” he told a press conference.

“Each country has its own stance. (Their visits) should not influence foreign relations too much.”

Japanese nationalist politicians’ visits to the shrine, coupled with the country’s claim to Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo, have long been a perennial thorn in the two countries’ relationship.

The temple honors Japan’s war dead including 14 branded as “Class A” criminals after World War II, during which it forcibly mobilized South Korean sex slaves and laborers.

Their ties plunged to their lowest ebb in decades after former President Lee Myung-bak visited the Dokdo islets claimed by Tokyo in October, followed by Seoul’s last-minute cancelation of a first bilateral military accord in May. 

Though Park set a better mood with Japan as one of her key national tasks, their relationship has already suffered a series of setbacks this year.

Last month, Seoul protested Tokyo’s approval of newly updated schoolbooks repeating its claim to Dokdo and distorting wartime cruelty. In February, the Japanese government sent a vice minister-level official to the local Takeshima (Dokdo) Day for the first time and unveiled a plan to open a new state body responsible for territorial sovereignty policies, triggering criticism from Korea and China.

With Abe bracing for a pivotal election for the upper house in July, concerns are rising that Tokyo’s rightward shift may deepen historical and territorial brawls with Seoul.

During his first premiership in 2006-07, Abe refrained from worshipping at the shrine in consideration of relations with Korea, a move he later called a “mistake.”

He has also displayed his desire to rewrite the country’s pacifist constitution so it can boost defense spending, expand the use of its Self Defense Forces, reinforce territorial claims and revise a landmark 1993 apology for wartime atrocities.

Meanwhile, some observers took issue with the aptness of the withdrawal of Yun’s trip. They said he should have instead gone there and lodged a protest directly to Kishida or possibly Abe.

Another senior ministry official said that his agency normally regards it as a major diplomatic problem when one of Tokyo’s top three officials in charge of foreign relations -- prime minister, foreign minister and chief cabinet secretary -- prays at the shrine.

“Aso makes an unforeseen case as deputy premier but we were compelled to take a measure given that he came to Seoul as a special envoy and is a former prime minister as well as the candidate to be the next,” he told reporters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject.

By Shin Hyon-hee
(heeshin@heraldcorp.com)