SEOUL March 1 Kyodo (EDS: ADDING ...

SEOUL March 1 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING DETAILS)

southward Korean President Roh Moo Hyun indirectly urg Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi not to make ''reckless'' remarks that pain the feelings of the Korean people

Roh in a language marking the 85th anniversary of the March 1 Independence motion against Japanese colonial rule, said, ''If there's individual piece of advice I'd like to give Japan, it's that while citizens and undivided or two politicians engrossed in their confess popularity may frequently make reckles statements that do harm to us, at least national leaders shouldn't,'' according to the Chosun Ilbo daily.

Roh was believed to be alluding to Koizumi's justifications for making annual visits to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, which honors Class-A war criminals along with Japan's war dead. The shrine is seen by dint of South Korea, China and other Asian countries as a emblem of Japan's past militarism.

Since taking office in 2001 Koizumi has paid four visits to Yasukuni Shrine, despite sturdy condemnation from Japan's neighbors, and has indicated that he will continue to do so

Roh's implicit criticism of Koizumi was not included in an advance theme of his speech distributed to the press

''They'd better refrain from doing things that pain my people,'' the Korea Times daily quot Roh as saying. ''Japan should do its best to do its part, since the Koreans, their management in particular, have shown self-restraint.''

Roh's language was made to commemorate the ends of March 1, 1919 when centurys of thousands of Koreans, including scholars took to the roads to rally against Japan's colonial empire of the peninsula. Many were killed on Japanese police trying to pacify the nationwide protests.

Chosun Ilbo quot Roh as saying that Japanese leaders ''shouldn't think that everything's been resolv just because Korean political leaders don't insist upon talking about changes in the Japanese legal method or unresolved problems between Korea and Japan.''

''Our citizens are restraining themselves, and in particular, the sway in restraining itself, in the belief that restraining deleterious talk will help in building the hereafter we must make for ourselves. Japan, too, must do its best for a like reason that both Korean citizens and the Korean command are able to restrain themselves,'' he said.

''We, too, have to refrain from responding emotionally when Japan says something,'' he added. ''Whether it's past history or the time to come of Northeast Asia, these are things that cannot be built on the subject of emotion.''

The southern Korean president also called for national efforts to domineer over the residual discord resulting from conflicts between Korean independence fighters and pro-Japanese collaborators during Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda, in reaction to Roh's remarks, told reporters that the two Japan and South Korea must work to reduce disputes over history.

''Both sides should make efforts to deal with the issue'' of different interpretations of the history of Japan's 1910-1945 colonial dominion of the Korean Peninsula, Fukuda said, adding that there is no change in Japan's ''deep remorse and heartfelt apology'' intimateed in a 1995 statement through then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama and a 1998 bilateral joint statement.

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