Seoul, Aug 15 (IANS): President Yoon Suk Yeol unveiled a vision for unification with North Korea on Thursday, pledging to expand outside information in the reclusive nation and proposing an official dialogue channel that can "take up any issue."

Yoon made the remark in an address marking Liberation Day, which celebrates the 1945 end of Japan's colonial rule, saying, "Complete liberation remains an unfinished task" as the Korean Peninsula still remains divided, reports Yonhap news agency.

"The freedom we enjoy must be extended to the frozen kingdom of the North, where people are deprived of freedom and suffer from poverty and starvation," Yoon said. "Only when a unified free and democratic nation rightfully owned by the people is established across the entire Korean Peninsula will we finally have complete liberation."

Japanese Defence Minister Minoru Kihara was among the officials who visited the shrine, prompting Seoul's foreign ministry to summon Taisuke Mibae, deputy chief of mission at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, to strongly protest the visit.

It marked the first time in three years for a sitting Japanese defence minister to visit the shrine.

"(We) cannot but deplore the anachronistic act," a foreign ministry official said.

The defence ministry also called in a defence attache at the Japanese Embassy to strongly protest Kihara's visit to the shrine, the official stated, noting that it goes against the two countries' efforts to develop future-oriented relations.