Japan's Red Cage "Regretful for Korea"...Our government said, "I regret the Japanese attitude."

[Anchor]
The Japanese government said it was regrettable that South Korea did not attend the memorial service for the Sado mine and that the Japanese foreign minister's visit to Yasukuni was not true.

The Korean government expressed regret over Japan's attitude, saying that the decision not to attend was the result of reviewing all circumstances.

Correspondent Kim Se-ho's report from Tokyo.

[Reporter]
Akiko Ikuina, a foreign ministry official who was at the center of the controversy over the shrine visit at the Sado mine memorial ceremony hosted by Japan.

Japan's Kyodo News Agency apologized that reports that Ikuina, a political officer, visited Yasukuni shrine after winning the upper house of parliament were false reports that had not been verified.

The Japanese government has also officially denied that Ikuina's visits to Yasukuni were true.

[Yoshimasa Hayashi / Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary: I don't think there is any problem in deciding on the attendance of Ikuina, a political official in charge of Asia-Pacific affairs. In addition, Ikuina has never visited Yasukuni shrine since she took office in the upper house.]

At the same time, he said he was sorry for Korea's absence from the memorial service and handed over the responsibility for the disruption to us.

Sankei, a far-right media outlet, used the extreme expression of "Anti-Japanese soldiers in Korea" and went a step further and urged Ikui or a political officer to pay tribute to Yasukuni sooner rather than later.

The Korean government has made it clear that the absence of the memorial service was due to the failure of the Japanese side to properly keep the promise it originally agreed upon.

It refuted Japan's claim that the Korean government did not attend the memorial service based on misinformation.

[Lee Jae-woong / Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson: It was an important consideration that matters related to the memorial service, such as the contents of one side's eulogy, did not meet the level of agreement when the Sado mine was registered]

He stressed that holding a separate memorial service was also an expression of his will not compromise on past history.

At the same time, he expressed regret over Japan's attitude during the Korea-Japan consultation on the memorial ceremony.

However, he added that he asked Japan to communicate closely so that they could manage individual cases without escalating into unnecessary conflicts.

Diplomatic authorities in Korea and Japan seem to be wary of the spread of controversy over the Sado mine memorial service.

However, it is pointed out that if Japan continues its attitude to avoid forced labor of Koreans, the spark of conflict will inevitably grow.

I'm Kim Se-ho from YTN in Tokyo.