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SEOUL (Reuters) – Japan should refrain from carrying the "Rising Sun" flag on a warship as part of a planned fleet review in South Korea next week, a news website said on Friday. of North Korean propaganda that would join the South Korean colonial history.
A sailor raises the Japanese naval flag on the deck of the Japanese Kaga helicopter carrier before leaving for naval exercises in the Indian Ocean, Indonesia, on September 22, 2018. REUTERS / Kim Kyung-Hoon
Relations between neighbors and Japan have long been strained by persistent resentment of Japanese settlement, territorial disputes and the question of girls and women forced to work in Japan's brothels during the war.
Many people in both Koreas see the red and white flag as the symbol of Japan's past military aggression and its occupation of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
"The" Rising Sun "flag is a war crime flag that Japanese imperialists of the 20th century used to execute their barbarian invasions in our country and in other Asian countries," said the Uriminjokkiri website, controlled by the state.
"Planning to enter by flying the" Rising Sun "flag is an insulting insult and a ridicule for our people."
In South Korea, which has officially asked Japan to reconsider the flag, controversial articles are among the most widely read on social media. The president's office has received 250 petitions calling for the ban of the Japanese ship.
The South Korean Navy said on Friday that Japanese Navy ships were flying the flag when they participated in the Fleet Exams in 1998 and 2008, but it asked all ships for the Navy's review of the Navy. this year to display the national and South Korean flags.
The "Rising Sun" flag, used by the Japanese Imperial Navy during campaigns in Asia and the Pacific before and during the Second World War, was adopted by the Maritime Self-Defense Force in 1954.
Flag variants are used by the Earth's self-defense force and the fatigues of some Japanese sailors, but some South Koreans compare the sign to Nazi symbols such as swastika.
Japanese authorities have announced that the flag will be hoisted despite the protests.
"The lifting of the flag of maritime self-defense forces is required by law," Katsutoshi Kawano, chief of staff of Japan's self-defense forces, told reporters on Thursday.
"The members are proud of the flag, and we will never go there without a flag."
The South Korean Foreign Ministry has "stated that we were convinced that the Japanese side should take full account of the emotional connotation of the rising sun flag to our people," Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said on Thursday. .
Japan is a key player in the United States' efforts to isolate and punish North Korea for its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
However, despite tenuous relations between Pyongyang and Seoul, the northern leader, Kim Jong Un, embarked this year in a wave of diplomacy during which he also met with American and Chinese leaders.
Japan and South Korea often exchange excitement over controversial islands known as Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in Korea.
Additional reports by Tim Kelly and Kiyoshi Takenaka in TOKYO; Edited by Clarence Fernandez
