Japan has informed South Korea of a planned radioactive waste survey near the disputed islets in the Sea of Japan, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said yesterday.
The survey scheduled from late this month to early next month will inspect the effects of radioactive waste in waters near Vladivostok in Russia, the source quoted by Kyodo News Agency said.
Japan gave an advance notice to South Korea, following a proposal that the two nations warn each other of any oceanic research near the group of islets, called Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea.
South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon did not indicate the exact area where the survey for radioactive pollution would be conducted, or when Japan plans the mission.
"The Japanese government has recently notified us that it plans to conduct a survey for radioactive pollution in the East Sea [Sea of Japan] at an appropriate time," Ban told reporters.
"It is the clear position of our government that if Japan wants to conduct a maritime survey in our EEZ [Exclusive Economic Zone], it must seek our government's authorization," he said.
The EEZs that both of the two nations claim overlap in the waters near the islets.
Japan's research sites are said to be in the South Korean-claimed zone, the source said.
South Korea, Japan, Russia and the International Atomic Energy Agency conducted a joint survey in 1994 to find abnormalities caused by the waste. But Tokyo and Seoul have continued with similar surveys every year. South Korea's Yonhap new agency said that from the 1950s to the 1990s, the Soviet Union and then Russia dumped nuclear waste in waters off of Vladivostock.
The two nations resumed bilateral discussions on the exclusive economic zone in early June, when South Korea rejected Japan's proposal to give advance notice for the survey. Seoul conducted a maritime survey last month in the zone claimed by the Japanese despite Tokyo's strong protest.
South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki Moon is expected to meet Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso next week.
The two officials are to mainly discuss North Korea's recent missile launches, but they also plan to talk about ways to improve deteriorating bilateral relations.
The two countries have seen their ties strained over the past year over the island dispute. Some analysts have said the row has affected Seoul and Tokyo's efforts to bring North Korea back to talks aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.
Japan's top government spokesman said Japan had the right to do surveys near the islands.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the