Roundup: Japanese police arrest S. Korean man linked to Yasukuni Shrine blast

Japanese police arrested a South Korean man Wednesday in connection with an explosion at the notorious Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo last month.

The suspect, Chon Chang Han, 27, was arrested following his return to Japan on Wednesday morning at Tokyo's Haneda airport.

The suspect had returned to South Korea following the incident that occurred at the shrine on a national holiday last month.

Police officials have said the man has been charged with entering the premises of Yasukuni Shrine, in particular the restroom where the explosion occurred, for unlawful purposes. The suspect has denied the allegations, local media have reported.

The police also said that following a search of the hotel room where Chon was staying, no items connecting him to the explosion were found.

Japan's NHK public broadcaster said the suspect was asked to voluntarily follow police at Haneda airport for questioning, and was formally arrested thereafter.

Chon's reentry to Japan had been tracked by the airport's system to red-flag suspicious passengers entering the country, based on their personal information, police and airport officials said.

Records show Chon had flown to Japan on Nov. 21 for a short stay and returned home on the afternoon of Nov. 23. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police believe that Chon also visited the shrine one day prior to carrying out the alleged bombing to prepare for the attack.

More than 100 police, bomb disposal experts and firefighters were called to the shrine on Nov 23., which was a national holiday in Japan and saw larger gatherings at the shrine than usual, with 100 or so worshippers gathering in the shrine's main hall as the first day of the annual Festival of First Fruits was being celebrated.

No injuries resulted as a result of the blast that occurred at around 10 a.m. on Monday morning, police and rescue official have confirmed.

Witness accounts and security footage apparently showed a man carrying a paper bag just moments before a blast was clearly heard coming from a restroom in the shrine.

Police confirmed after the blast that they had recovered a charred battery case from one of the toilet stalls that investigators described as a possible timer-controlled firing device and found that part of the ceiling had been cut out, from where they retrieved a number of pipes, one of which contained a wire lead.

Yasukuni Shrine is dedicated to honoring Japan's war dead, and houses the souls of 14 WWII Class A convicted war criminals along with 2.5 million war dead. Enditem