Court orders foreign ministry to approve Yasukuni-focused civic group

SEOUL, Jan. 2 (Yonhap) -- A South Korean court ordered the government to
officially approve a civic group working to bring back the mortuary tablets of
deceased Koreans laid in a Tokyo shrine alongside Japanese war criminals,
officials said Friday.
The Korean Committee for Anti-Yasukuni Organization seeks to remove the tablets
now enshrined within Japan's Yasukuni Shrine, where the country's war dead are
laid, including 14 Class A war criminals convicted by an international tribunal
following World War II.
The committee applied last March to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade for
its official registration as a non-profit organization and for financial support.
According to relevant laws, public organizations or institutions can become
eligible for government aid after submitting the required forms to ministries
that oversee their activities.
The ministry rejected the group's request, however, saying the scope of its
activity is outside the ministry's authority.
"The organization's activities are intended to prove the facts about the
enshrined Koreans, to seek legal procedures and finally to bring them back from
the shrine. It has a close relationship with the work of the foreign ministry,
which manages international relations," said the Seoul Administrative Court in
its verdict.
"As the group's goal is to exert influence on Japan's policies, the foreign
ministry should play a major role in coordinating the group's work to prevent
unnecessary conflict with Japan."
About 20,000 Koreans are estimated to be among the 2.4 million people laid to
reast at Yasukuni. A majority of the Koreans there were forced into labor or
military service for Japan during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of Korea.
brk@yna.co.kr
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