Seoul protests disclosure of Yasukuni suspect’s identity

South Korea on Thursday filed a formal complaint to Japan about the local media disclosing the face and full name of a Korean man accused of being responsible for a small blast at the Yasukuni Shrine last month.

The Foreign Ministry filed the complaint via a diplomatic channel in the morning, said spokesman Cho June-hyuck, a day after 27-year-old Jeon was arrested at Haneda Airport in Tokyo. Both his face and his name have been fully revealed by Japanese media, while Korean media blurred out his face in the photos and used only his surname.

He is believed to have entered a public bathroom at the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Nov. 23 to plant a device that was set off later in the day. No injuries occurred. Police are cross-checking Jeon’s testimonies and evidence after he withdrew his confession, according to Kyodo.

The ministry remained mum on possible effects the incident may have on Korea-Japan ties, or the details of the investigation. Cho said the ministry has “provided sufficient support” for Jeon via its consulate in Japan.

Earlier in the day, Japan’s Sankei Shimbun reported that the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department is mulling whether to launch an investigation in Korea as well, in relation to understanding the motivation behind the crime.

Jeon has also been reported by local Kyodo News Agency Thursday to have confessed his crimes but flip-flopped later to deny the connection to the bombing.

The Japanese officials have found that a DNA sample from a cigarette butt found at the scene matched the DNA samples recovered at his hotel room. Officials believe that if the DNA testing of Jeon turns out to match the samples, it would be damning evidence of his crime.

They are also investigating an unidentified object recovered at the bathroom, suspected to be an explosive device.

In light of the incident, local Koreans are concerned that anti-Korean sentiment will rise among the Japanese people, according to Yoo Jae-sun, head of a Korean-language media outlet in Japan.

There have even been rumors that the Korean government had pressured Jeon to reenter Japan, in a bid to prevent the relationship between the two countries from deteriorating.

But a senior official from the Foreign Ministry said the possibility of the incident affecting Korea-Japan ties was very slim, and that the rumors of the government pressuring Jeon to reenter Korea was “neither plausible nor possible.”


By Yoon Min-sik
(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)