Seoul to lock horns with Tokyo over isles dispute
SEOUL - THE South Korean President yesterday called on his government to counter Japan's claim over a chain of disputed islands, ruling out any compromise with Tokyo in the worsening row.
Thu, Jul 17, 2008
The Straits Times
'We have to keep in mind that Japan has been employing a long-term strategy and has turned these territories into an international dispute one step at a time,' Mr Lee Myung Bak told his ministers at a Cabinet meeting, according to his spokesman Lee Dong Kwan.
'We too need to take a strategic, long-term approach to this matter.'
South Korea will seek to raise international awareness of the dispute and consider ways to bolster its claim to the islands, President Lee said.
'There is no room for concessions or compromise because Dokdo is a matter of our territorial sovereignty,' he stressed.
The rocky islands in the Sea of Japan or East Sea are known as Dokdo in South Korea and Takeshima in Japan, and have been disputed for decades.
The most recent uproar over the islands was triggered when Japan unveiled new educational guidelines on Monday, calling for Japanese students to have a deeper understanding of their country's claim to the islands.
South Korea has a small unit of maritime police stationed on the rugged and treeless islands, which cover a total area of 18.7ha and have a strategic approach.
Japan claimed them in 1905 after winning a war against Russia in the region.
It went on to annex the entire Korean peninsula from 1910 until its 1945 defeat in World War II.
The group of 33 islets is about 87km east of South Korea's Ullung Island and 157km north-west of the Oki islands, which are part of Japan.
South Korea recalled its ambassador to Japan, Mr Kwon Chul Hyun, in protest over the new educational guidelines, signalling a pause in warming relations under President Lee and Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda.
'I have conveyed our concerns to Japan that it may be hard to go ahead' with a bilateral summit in Seoul and a trilateral summit involving the leaders of China, Japan and South Korea in Tokyo, the ambassador told the Munhwa Ilbo newspaper yesterday.
Also yesterday, around 30 angry South Korean activists hurled dozens of rotten eggs and tomatoes at the Japanese embassy, witnesses said.
The embassy has been guarded by hundreds of riot police officers since Monday.
BLOOMBERG, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE