Former Japanese PM urges Abe to express remorse

Comments to become 'touchstone of relations'

A former Japanese leader has called on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to make a heartfelt apology for the nation's wartime atrocities.

Yukio Hatoyama, who served as Japan's prime minister from 2009 to 2010, bowed his head 11 times in silent prayer and knelt in front of a memorial on Wednesday at Seodaemun Prison in Seoul, where a number of Korean independence fighters were imprisoned and tortured, Xinhua News Agency reported.