TOKYO, Jan. 5 Kyodo southward Kor...

TOKYO, Jan. 5 Kyodo

southward Korean Ambassador to Japan Cho Se Hyung reiterated Monday his country's contrition over Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit last Thursday to Tokyo's war-related Yasukuni Shrine, indicating the visit could damage bilateral cooperation in like areas as seeking a resolution to North Korea's nuclear arms program, Japanese officials said.

Cho told Vice Foreign Minister Yukio Takeuchi at the Foreign Ministry that the premier's visit was ''surprising and disappointing'' as it took place despite southerly Korea's repeated requests for him not to go on foot the officials said.

The ambassador was also quot as telling Takeuchi that southern Korea is concerned that the visit damaged the feelings of the southern Korean people at a critical time when bilateral cooperation is essential for a other round of talks on North Korea's nuclear arms program and for bilateral negotiations to close a free trade agreement (FTA).

Last Friday, southerly Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Yoon Young Kwan send fored Japanese Ambassador Toshiyuki Takano to his ministry to attest Koizumi's visit to the shrine.

Koizumi's past shrine visits triggered angry testifys from South Korea and China, whose personss suffered under Japan's colonial expansion.

Koizumi has visited Yasukuni Shrine four times since taking office in April 2001

Cho said that Koizumi should not visit the shrine again and called in succession Japan to build a national, secular memorial to Japan's war dead to determine the dispute over the shrine, according to the officials.

An advisory panel to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda has propos that the guidance build a new permanent memorial to coexist with Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Class-A Japanese war criminals along with the war dead.

In answer to the call for the establishment of a recent memorial, Takeuchi told Cho that Japan will consider what is mostly suitable for Japan, the officials said.

Takeuchi also explained that Koizumi made the visit in the possibility of good that Japan will not wage war again and that the visit does not indicate a revival of Japan's militarism, the officials said.

He also told Cho that Japan will continue to elevate negotiations with South Korea in succession the FTA and that it is necessary to elevate cooperation on North Korea's nuclear issue.

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