South Korea protests Japanese leaders' offerings to Yasukuni shrine

A wooden plaque showing the name of Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is seen with a "masakaki" tree (left) that he sent as an offering to the Yasukuni Shrine on the spring festival in Tokyo on Sunday, April 21, 2024. - AFP

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea on Sunday protested Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's offering to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine with "deep disappointment" and urged Japanese leaders to show repentance for the country's wartime past.

The shrine is seen by Beijing and Seoul as a symbol of Japan's past military aggression because it includes 14 Japanese wartime leaders convicted as war criminals by an Allied tribunal among the 2.5 million war dead honoured there.