The South Korean government on Thursday urged Japan to take a proper stance on the Yasukuni Shrine honoring war criminals of World War II.

It has been disclosed the Japanese health and welfare authorities were directly involved in the process of enshrining war criminals at the shrine, the South Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The South Korean government wants Japan to take responsible measures based on the correct historical view without distorting the history any longer, said the statement.

The statement came after reports on Wednesday in Japan that Japan's National Diet Library released a book indicating the Health and Welfare Ministry proposed the Yasukuni Shrine enshrine World War II Class-B and Class-C war criminals in the late 1950s.

The book, titled "A New Compilation of Materials on the Yasukuni Shrine Problems," is a compilation of declassified government documents and minutes of meetings between government officials and representatives of the shrine, the South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported.

Source: Xinhua