South Korea will support Japan's bid for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council if Tokyo adopts "sincere" policies reflective of its wartime and colonial-era conduct, Moon Hee Sang, visiting chairman of South Korea's ruling Uri Party, said Thursday.

"If Japan reflects on its past and carries out sincere policies, the South Korean government will do its utmost as a friend to enhance Japan's position in the U.N. and the international community," Moon told the Japan National Press Club.

In a speech in March, South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun called on Japan to sincerely apologize and compensate for its brutal colonial rule of the peninsula from 1910 to 1945. Echoing Roh's position, Moon said Japan will have to take policy steps to address its wartime past if it aims to be a member of the UNSC.

The Uri Party chairman also urged Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi not to make his annual visit to Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Class-A war criminals as well as Japan's war dead.

Moon said Koizumi's Yasukuni visits have cast the impression to Japan's neighbors that he is paying respect not only to those who fought for the country, but the war criminals as well.