Japanese prosecutors indicted a South Korean man for the suspected bombing of a public restroom at a Tokyo war shrine last month, news reports said Monday.
The 27-year-old suspect, identified only by his surname Chon, is charged with breaking into the premises on Nov. 23 and was taken into custody, Kyodo News agency reported.
Chon was arrested earlier this month shortly after voluntarily returning to Tokyo by plane.
An explosion was heard inside the shrine on the morning of Nov. 23. Police found a digital timer and a bundle of pipes presumed to be carrying explosives in the restroom at the shrine, local media said.
DNA tests on cigarette butts found in the restroom and the suspect’s hotel room matched, according to the Fuji News Network, a commercial television news network in Japan.
Chon made a statement that he installed some sort of a device in the restroom on the day of the incident, according to local media.
The indictment came as South Korea and Japan began crucial talks in Seoul on how to resolve the issue of former Korean sex slaves for Japan’s World War II soldiers.
South Korea and China view the Yasukuni Shrine — which honors over 2.4 million war dead, including 14 convicted Class-A war criminals — as a symbol of Japan’s past imperialism.
Many South Koreans still harbor deep resentment against Japan over its 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. (Yonhap)
