South Korea condemned a group of Japanese lawmakers Friday for paying tribute at a shrine viewed as a symbol of Japan's militaristic past.

More than 90 Japanese lawmakers, most of them members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, visited Tokyo's Yasukuni war shrine earlier in the day to mark the annual spring festival. The shrine honors millions of Japan's war dead, including 14 Class-A war criminals.

"Our government cannot help but deplore the fact that some Japanese Cabinet members and lawmakers went ahead with another visit to the Yasukuni shrine, which beautifies the colonial past and war of aggression, and enshrines war criminals," Seoul's Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho June-hyuck said in a statement.

"A responsible politician of Japan should squarely face history and demonstrate humble reflection and sincere repentance for the past through action."

On Thursday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a ritual offering to the shrine but did not visit it.

Japanese politicians' visits to the shrine anger South Korea and China, which suffered from Japanese aggression in the early part of the 20th century. (Yonhap)