TOKYO – A South Korean man admitted Tuesday to detonating a homemade pipe bomb at a controversial Tokyo war shrine last year, in a case that highlighted lingering tensions over Japan’s former rule of the Korean peninsula.
Jeon Chang-Han, 28, also admitted to illegally entering the shrine in the case’s first hearing at the Tokyo District Court on Tuesday, public broadcaster NHK and other media reported.
No one was hurt in the explosion that happened in the toilets at the Yasukuni shrine, which has been targeted in the past by activists who see it as a symbol of Japan’s militaristic past.
Jeon is believed to have left Japan after the blast, but was arrested when he returned in early December – reportedly carrying two kilogrammes (4.4 pounds) of gunpowder.
Prosecutors and the court could not be reached for confirmation.
The Yasukuni shrine honours millions of Japan’s war dead, including several senior military and political figures convicted of war crimes after World War II, and remains a diplomatic flashpoint in Northeast Asia.
Visits by senior Japanese politicians to the Yasukuni shrine routinely draw an angry reaction from China and South Korea.
Issues related to Japan’s 1910-1945 rule of the Korean peninsula remain a flashpoint in Tokyo’s relations with South and North Korea today.
Reuters
