Thu, Mar 17, 2005 page5

• New Japanese bill seeks to lay claim on disputed islets

  • AFP
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  Local Japanese lawmakers passed a bill yesterday stressing a claim to a small island chain controlled by South Korea, defying Seoul's warnings that the dispute had set back reconciliation between the countries.

  The assembly of western Shimane Prefecture enacted an ordinance designating Feb. 22 as "Takeshima Day" in recognition of the rocky islets of the same name, which are uninhabited but lucrative for fishermen, a local official said.

  The law said the day, which marks a 1905 notice declaration of the Japanese province's rule of the islands, is meant to "promote movements to establish sovereignty over Takeshima at an early date and raise national awareness over the issue."

  The renewed Japanese claims on the islets, known as the Dokdo in Korean, have infuriated South Korea, where bitter memories remain over Japan's brutal colonial rule over the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945.

  "It is needless to say that Shimane prefecture's deplorable act has no impact on the status of Dokdo belonging to our territory," South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon said in a press briefing.

  Ban, who canceled his scheduled trip to Tokyo this month amid rising tension, said Seoul would take countermeasures "to further cement our effective control" of the rocky islets.

  Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi called for calm in the escalating dispute.

  "We need to handle the matter calmly as there has been an emotional confrontation," Koizumi told reporters.

  Hours before Wednesday's vote, police in the Shimane assembly building seized a knife from a South Korean activist who tried to slice off his finger to write a protest in blood.

  "It was dangerous as there were many people around," a local police spokesman said. "We took the knife, as we cannot predict what will happen on this special day."

  Two South Koreans cut off their fingers outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul on Monday.

  The islets are just flyspecks on the map, located in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) some 250km north of Japan's western Shimane region and 215km east of South Korea's port city of Uljin.

  Japanese fishermen have accused South Korean maritime police of completely restricting access around the island, allegedly giving the Japanese less choice fishing grounds.

  "I want Japanese people to know about the Takeshima problem. The bill was part of our efforts to appeal to the Japanese public," said Kotaro Yanai, a Shimane prefecture official.

  "We have seen little progress on this issue. Unless we do something about it, I am worried that the whole Takeshima issue may be forgotten," he said.

  Relations between Tokyo and Seoul had been warming in the past few years with South Korea -- unlike China -- largely putting on the backburner the issue of how Japan remembers its wartime history.

  The Takeshima dispute came on a year designated by Tokyo and Seoul as the "friendship year" to mark four decades after their 1965 treaty normalizing relations. In a March 1 speech marking the 86th anniversary of a 1919 Korean uprising against Japanese rule, South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun said Japan should apologize and offer compensation for atrocities against Koreans. The president's call surprised Tokyo, which has said it fulfilled its obligations by signing the 1965 treaty and providing Seoul with US$800 million dollars in loans and grants. Seoul has also filed a complaint over the latest edition of a Japanese history textbook which South Korean officials say justifies Japan's occupation of Asian countries before and during World War II.
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