Japan, South Korea and China are sparring over a new shrine.

The opening on Sunday of a memorial hall in China to the assassin of the Japanese governor-general of Korea in 1909 has drawn a sharp exchange of words between Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing.

The memorial hall was built at the railway station in the northeastern Chinese city of Harbin, where Korean national Ahn Jung-guen shot and killed Hirobumi Ito on Oct. 26, 1909.

Modeled on the original façade of the station and with a clock showing the exact time of the assassination, the hall is the fruit of a request by South Korean President Park Geun-hye to Chinese President Xi Jinping during a visit to Beijing in June last year.

South Korea's foreign ministry heralded the opening of the memorial, noting in a statement Sunday that those who visit can "look out at the site of the patriotic deed by Patriot Ahn." South Korean media reports described people crying and praying at the memorial.