Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=10/28/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=CHINA JAPAN SHRINE - L

NUMBER=2-295788

BYLINE=JIM RANDLE

DATELINE=BEIJING

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: China's president has told Japan's prime minister (Sunday) that his visit to a controversial World War Two shrine seriously hurt relations between the two nations and should never happen again. V-O-A Beijing correspondent Jim Randle reports.

TEXT: Chinese President Jiang Zemin says Prime

Minister Junichiro Koizumi's two visits to the

Yasukuni shrine to Japan's war dead "violate the emotions" of China's one-point-three billion people.

The shrine honors Japan's many war dead, including

some war criminals, who fought in China. Mr. Koizumi

has made two highly publicized visits there since

taking office last year, enraging China and other

nations victimized by Japan's aggression and atrocities before and during World War Two.

Officials say Mr. Jiang bluntly lectured his Japanese

counterpart several times during their private talks

on the sidelines of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation

meeting in Mexico, Sunday.

Prime Minister Koizumi says he visited Yasukuni not to

pay respects to any particular person, but to express

regret over deaths in the war. He says the trips also

expressed his determination that war should never

happen again.

China says 35 million people died under Japanese

occupation. Chinese veterans like Wang De Hou (Prono: wong de hoe) say even the brutal business of war has some rules - and Japan broke all of them in a campaign of arson, rape, and murder.

/// WANG ACT, ESTABLISH AND FADE UNDER ///

The old soldier, now in his 80's, says there is "no

way" to forget, and he says even young Chinese are

angry. He says history can't change and the scars

will "always be there."

In spite of differences over the past, the two nations

say they are cooperating on the threat posed by North Korea's recently disclosed nuclear weapons program.

The United States this month says North Korea admitted it is violating a 1994 agreement to stop developing nuclear weapons - sparking alarm in China, Japan, South Korea, and the United States.

Japan resumes talks aimed at normalizing relations

with North Korea on Tuesday in Malaysia, and pledged

to seek a peaceful solution to the nuclear weapons

issue. China's President Jiang says Beijing is also

seeking a peaceful solution and wants a nuclear-free

Korean Peninsula. China sends North Korea aid and is

the isolated nation's sole important ally. (Signed)

NEB/HK/JR/JO