Japan's Premier Visits Controversial War Shrine TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Thursday after his visit to the Yasukuni Shrine for the war dead that relations with China and South Korea were important. "I hope for an opportunity to explain to China and South Korea that strengthening ties would be in the national interest," Abe told reporters after his visit to the shrine. China and South Korea have repeatedly expressed anger in the past over Japanese politicians' visits to Yasukuni Shrine, where Japanese leaders convicted as war criminals by an Allied tribunal are honored along with war dead. The shrine is seen in parts of Asia as a symbol of Japanese past militarism. Reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro; Editing by Dominic Lau