S.Korea opposes Japan's bid for permanent membership of UNSC

South Korean government has decided to work to block Japan's bid to win permanent membership in the United Nations Security Council, Seoul's envoy to the UN said Friday.

"We do not think Japan has the qualifications to become a UN Security Council member, and we will try to make sure it does not (become a Security Council member)," South Korean Ambassador Kim Sam-hoon said in New York in an interview with South Korea's Yonhap News Agency.

He said Japan's leadership would be "limited" because it lacks confidence of neighboring countries.

"There are difficulties for a country that does not have the trust of its neighboring countries because of its lack of reflection on the past to play the role of a world leader," the South Korean diplomat was quoted as saying.

South Korea and Japan is experiencing new diplomatic friction due to Japan's claim to a set of disputed islets in the East Sea (Sea of Japan) that is under effectual control of South Korea.

Japan has also been at odds with its neighboring countries overa new edition of Japanese history textbooks that critics say try to justify and even glorify Japan's invasion of Asia during World War II.

South Korean government earlier said Japan's whitewash of past aggression history and claim to the islets, called "Dokdo" in Korean and "Takeshima" in Japan, can not be "tolerated."

Source: Xinhua