Japanese Navy Refuses Seoul Request to Ground Rising Sun Flag

Japan has rebuffed South Korea’s request for the removal of the navy's kyokujitsuki or rising sun flag before attending an international fleet review next week in South Korea.

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Japan’s Military Chief of Staff Katsutoshi Kawano said the rising sun flag is the Maritime Self-Defense Force sailors' "pride" and "we absolutely do not go if we have to remove the flag."

However, South Koreans see the flag as a symbol of Japan's World War II aggression. Seoul asked all 14 countries that are participating in the fleet review to display only their national flags and the South Korean flag on their vessels.

On Friday, Japan formally announced that it will not send a warship to the event and Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya told reporters that the South Korean Government had been informed of the decision.

South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha had urged Japan to consider how the 1910-1945 colonization of the Korean Peninsula is viewed.

But, Japanese officials stated that the flag - whose design portrays a red sun with 16 rays - is mandatory for Japan's naval ships under domestic laws, adding that the flag is recognized as identification for the Japanese military under an international maritime convention.

Japanese naval ships flying rising-sun flags previously participated in fleet reviews in South Korea in 1998 and 2008.

The flag issue is the latest row between the countries.

Japan's relations with both Koreas have been strained by resentment over its colonization of the peninsula, territorial disputes and wartime comfort women.

"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 Uriminjokkiri website said.

"Planning to enter flying the 'Rising Sun' flag is an unbearable insult and ridicule to our people."

Japan has also further agitated relations by siding with the United States in its dispute with North Korea over nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.