SEOUL, Oct 15: Japan’s Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Monday apologized to the Korean people for their suffering under Japanese rule between 1910 and 1945.

Hundreds of demonstrators at times drowned out Koizumi’s speech in a former colonial prison in Seoul as he made the most outright apology by any Japanese leader for the country’s wartime past.

“I sincerely apologize for the pain and sorrow Japan inflicted on the Korean people under Japanese colonial rule,” he said in speech in front of a monument to Korean independence fighters tortured to death in the prison.

“Japan and South Korea should cooperate not to repeat the painful past ever again,” he added.

Koizumi is on a day’s visit to Seoul, a week after a similar trip to Beijing. Both missions were intended to ease relations strained by Japan’s handling of its history.

Before the speech, he looked around the two-storey Sodaemun Prison Hall Museum and laid a wreath before the small monument inscribed with the names of the Korean fighters.

He twice bowed in front of the monument and observed a moment’s silence with his hands clasped in prayer.

In the museum, Koizumi went to a basement floor to see gruesome exhibits of how prisoners were tortured and executed by Japanese colonial police and soldiers, museum officials said.

“Koizumi looked very sincere and he was sometimes nodding his head but did not make any comment while listening to the explanation,” said Lee Chung-Kyu, who is in charge of the Sodaemun ward office.

“Today I thought a lot and I have apologized deeply. This has been a good experience,” Koizumi said in his speech.

“I will look frankly back to the past and make efforts for better relations in the future,” he added. —AFP