TOKYO: Japan may halt summit meetings with South Korea, a report said yesterday, as a diplomatic spat between the neighbours worsened and Seoul called on the Japanese emperor to apologise for past atrocities.
A proposed visit to a controversial Tokyo war shrine by two Japanese cabinet ministers, for the first time in several years, was also rubbing salt into decades-old wounds, with Seoul urging the men to stay away.
Japan's prime minister would usually meet key regional players for face-to-face talks at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, to be held in Vladivostok, eastern Russia, next month.
But Tokyo is scrabbling to find a suitable response to a visit last week by South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak to islands known in Japan as Takeshima and in Korean as Dokdo, which are claimed by both sides.
Japan's conservative newspaper said Tokyo was considering suspending summits with South Korea "for the time being", including at APEC and a trip by the Japanese premier to South Korea as part of "shuttle diplomacy".
The Tokyo foreign ministry official in charge of issues on the Korean peninsula told AFP: "If we didn't set a bilateral summit with South Korea on the sidelines of APEC, it doesn't mean a 'cancellation' because it was never officially planned."
He added: "There is an opinion (in the government) that Japan should tell President Lee our opinion face-to-face, so I don't know if a summit will take place at this point or not."
Lee's trip to the islands in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) provoked a furious response, with Tokyo recalling its ambassador from Seoul.
The visit, which Japanese Premier Yoshihiko Noda dubbed "extremely deplorable", was the first by a South Korean president to the largely uninhabited volcanic outcrops.
South Korea yesterday said two Japanese cabinet ministers who have announced their intention to go to the Yasukuni, a spot that honours Japan's war dead, should stay away.