South Korean government Monday denounced the Japanese foreign minister's remarks that Emperor Akihito should visit a controversial shrine that honors war criminals.

"We urge the Japanese foreign minister to immediately withdraw the remark that hurts neighboring nations," South Korean Foreign Ministry said in a short statement.

"These remarks are based on a misguided recognition of history that whitewashes Japan's militarist past," the strong-worded statement said.

The statement came two days after Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso made remarks that he supported Japanese Emperor Akihito's possible visit to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo.

The Yasukuni Shrine honors 2.5 million Japanese war dead, including 14 Class A criminals of the World War II.

The visits made by Japanese leaders, senior officials and lawmakers to the controversial shrine have been one of the key sources of tension in the relationship between Japan and its Asian neighbors.

Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has visited the Yasukuni Shrine every year since his inauguration in 2001, despite of strong protest from South Korea and China.

His latest homage to the shrine was in October 2005, which made the ties between South Korea and Japan strained.

South Korean government and people view visits to the shrine as attempts to gloss over the brutality that Japan's military committed during the war.

Japan placed the Korean Peninsula under its colonial rule from 1910 through 1945, during which millions of Koreans were killed or forced to provide free labor or sexual servitude to the Japanese military.

Source: Xinhua