Campaign in S. Korea against Koizumi visit

SEOUL (SOUTH KOREA), OCT. 7. Some 140 South Korean civic groups will launch a joint signature-collecting campaign to oppose the Japanese Prime Minister, Mr. Junichiro Koizumi's planned visit to Seoul this month, officials said on Sunday. The campaign, led by anti-Japanese groups including the Korean Citizens' Movement for Correcting Japanese Textbooks, will begin on Monday, a joint statement said. They hope to collect 10 million signatures and deliver them to the Japanese embassy in Seoul before Mr. Koizumi's planned one-day visit on Oct. 15. ``We oppose a visit by the Japanese Prime Minister who ignored international opinion and approved a distorted textbook,'' the statement said. Ties between Japan and South Korea frayed because of Tokyo's adoption of a junior high school history textbook that South Korea says whitewashes Japanese atrocities before and during World War II.

Mr. Koizumi was also vilified for visiting a shrine that Seoul says symbolises Japan's past militarism. Any Japanese move perceived as glorifying its history evokes strong anti-Japanese sentiment in South Korea and other Asian countries, including China and North Korea. The Korean peninsula was a Japanese colony from 1910 to 1945.

Mr. Koizumi said his visit to the Yasukuni Shrine was meant to express his personal homage to 2.5 million Japanese war dead and had nothing to do with Japan's past militarism. Among the souls venerated there are convicted war criminals, including the wartime leader, Hideki Tojo.

Mr. Koizumi will also make a one-day trip to Beijing on Monday to meet with Chinese President, Mr. Jiang Zemin. China has also criticised the textbook and Mr. Koizumi's visit to Yasukuni. China believes that Japan has not atoned enough for atrocities committed in China during World War II.

- AP

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