Alwaght- Japan will reportedly skip an international fleet review in South Korea next week after Seoul has sided with the North Korea in demanding that Tokyo refrain from flying its military’s “rising Sun” flag on its warship during the event.
"The 'Rising Sun' flag is a war-crime flag that the 20th-century Japanese imperialists used when executing their barbaric invasions into our nation and other Asian nations," North Korea's state-controlled website Uriminjokkiri stated on Friday, amid lingering resentment by both Koreas over Japanese colonization, territorial disputes and the issue of girls and women forced to work in Japan's wartime brothels.
"Planning to enter flying the 'Rising Sun' flag is an unbearable insult and ridicule to our people," the North Korean website further insisted as many people in the two Koreas continue to regard the red-and-white flag as a symbol of Japan’s war time military aggression and occupation of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
This is while the South Korean Navy clarified on Friday that Japan’s naval vessels did fly the flag when they took part in similar fleet reviews in 1998 and 2008, but that Seoul has urged all warships at this year's naval event to display their national flags as well as the South Korean flag.
The "Rising Sun" ensign -- used by the Japanese Imperial Navy in their war efforts across Asia and the Pacific before and during World War II -- was adopted by the nation’s Maritime Self-Defense Force in 1954.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference that Japan's defense ministry was considering whether to take part, but public broadcaster NHK said Tokyo had already told Seoul it was unlikely to do so.
While some South Koreans compare the ensign to Nazi symbols such as the swastika, variations of the flag are also used by Japan’s ground Self-Defense Force and on the uniforms of some Japanese sailors.
Despite the protests, however, Japanese authorities have signaled that the controversial flag will be flown at next week’s naval event.
"Hoisting of the Maritime Self-Defense Force ensign is required by law," said chief of staff of Japan's Self Defense Forces, Katsutoshi Kawano, during a press briefing on Thursday.
"Members take pride in the ensign, and we will never go there with the flag unhoisted," he further emphasized.
This is while South Korea's Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha declared on Thursday that his ministry had "conveyed our stance that the Japanese side should fully consider the Rising Sun flag's emotional connotation to our people."
Japan remains a key player in the US-led efforts to isolate and “punish” North Korea over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles despite Pyongyang diplomatic overtures to Washington and Seoul.
