Even as the governments of South Korea and Japan have shown determination to repair their long-strained ties, the territorial issue over the Dokdo islets has flared up once more.
After the Japanese government filed a complaint against Seoul on Monday for conducting a marine survey in waters off the Dokdo islets, which Tokyo claims sovereignty over, South Korea rejected the complaint, claiming that its research activity was properly conducted in compliance with pertinent legislation.
“We cannot accept Japan’s claims on our legal activities which have been carried out in accordance with international laws, such as the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and other related domestic laws,” Korea’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.
While South Korea currently holds control over the Dokdo islets to manage it as its own territory, Japan has been claiming sovereignty over the islets, and claims that the sea surrounding the islets is also their Exclusive Economic Zone
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno raised the issue on Monday, after the government lodged a complaint against Korea for operating a research vessel in the waters off Dokdo, which Japan calls Takeshima, for two days.
Matsuno said the Korean research vessel carried out a survey without making a prior request to Japan and accused it of intruding Japan’s EEZ around the islets. The two governments discussed the incident, but both sides kept to their stance to claim sovereignty over the islets.
According to Sankei News in Japan, a director-general level talk is scheduled to be held in Seoul on Friday, where the Japanese government will ponder raising an issue over Korea’s research vessels.
While the South Korean government did not confirm the details of their diplomatic meetings over this matter, Japanese media outlets reported that it is the first time that the Japanese government has lodged a complaint against Korea’s marine survey activities since May 2017.
The complaint is seen as a move to show that the Japanese government will not “back down” on some of its long-standing disputes with South Korea, experts here said.
“Both governments have shown their desires to renew their relations, but (the complaint) appears to show that the Japanese government does not plan to concede in some of the conflicting issues that remain between them, including the Dokdo territorial dispute,” Choi Eun-mi, a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, a Seoul-based think tank, told The Korea Herald.
As South Korea and Japan welcomed new administrations in May and last October, respectively, the two governments have appeared to be making efforts to reinvigorate their ties that have been at their weakest in decades.
Major sticking points between them include Japan forcing Koreans into labor and sexual slavery during the Japanese colonial period.
As South Korea, the United States and Japan are making joint efforts to bolster their trilateral cooperation to handle the increasing nuclear threats from North Korea, the bilateral relations of Seoul and Tokyo will likely have little impact on the attempt.
But South Korean government will have to make extra efforts to persuade the public, as issues related to Japan are sensitive and taken seriously here, Choi added.
By Jo He-rim (herim@heraldcorp.com)