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| Park Geun-ryoung |
While showing respect for the Japanese leadership, she also said that "Japan bashing" in the Korean media has crossed a line.
Her pro-Japanese remarks sparked angry responses from Koreans ― and at the same time sympathy for the President, who is known to have long been at odds with her controversial sister.
The interview was released by Niconico, a video-sharing site that is known to be popular among Japanese conservatives.
During the interview which she answered in Korean, she called Akihito "His Majesty the Emperor" while talking about a meeting between the current Japanese emperor and then-Korean President Roh Tae-woo in 1990.
Geun-ryoung, 61, claimed that the Korean government "is overstepping boundaries" whenever it criticizes Japanese officials for visiting the Yasukuni Shrine.
The site is to honor the war dead, including convicted Class-A war criminals during World War II. Korea has considered the site ground zero for Japan's unrepentant wartime remembrance.
"It's natural for one to pay honor to their ancestors," she said. "I'd find it odd for a Korean to protest against Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe if he visits the shrine in the future."
She cited that she visits the graveyard of Park Chung-hee, her late father and the military strongman who ruled Korea in the 1960s and 1970s before he was shot dead by his spy chief, Kim Jae-gyu in 1979. The dictator has been criticized by liberals for serving in the Japanese military under the Japanese colonial rule.
Regarding Japan's sexual enslavement of the Korean women during WWII, Geun-ryoung said Japan's response over the issue has been "good enough."
"The Heavenly Emperor has apologized over such wartime atrocities repeatedly."
"It's Koreans who now should take good care of the surviving victims of Japan's wartime sex slavery.
"But the Korean media outlets continue their Japan bashing over the subject. I want to make sure most Koreans instead feel apologetic to the Japanese for taking such criticism."
Main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) slammed Geun-ryoung for her pro-Japan remarks.
"We believe she is opposing her elder sister deliberately," NPAD's vice spokesman Huh Young-il said.
He cited the 63-year-old President has been demanding that Japan offer a sincere apology over its wartime sex slavery as a precondition for a possible summit between her and Abe.
