President Lee Myung-bak is likely to return the Japanese prime minister’s written protest against his recent visit to Dokdo that escalated tension between the two countries, Seoul officials said Wednesday.
Officials said Cheong Wa Dae has yet to decide but is leaning toward refusing to accept last week’s letter from Yoshihiko Noda after discussing with experts in international law and foreign relations.
“We’ve been consulting with outside specialists primarily on the possible legal impact (on the territorial dispute) in case we accept it. A considerable number of them said it would be appropriate to send it back,” a senior official at the Foreign Ministry told reporters on customary condition of anonymity.
“We wouldn’t need to leave a bad diplomatic precedent (by taking the letter) and it carried unjust content that we cannot accept. Also there was a breach of courtesy,” he said, referring to the Japanese government’s release of the message to local media in advance of delivery.
In the dispatch, Noda expressed regret about Lee’s trip to the islets and later calls for Emperor Akihito’s apology for Japan’s colonial atrocities. He also claimed that Dokdo is Japanese territory, the official added.
Presidential spokesman Park Jeong-ha also said that officials are still debating and will soon come to a decision.
The unprecedented visit on Aug. 10 to the windswept islets in the East Sea prompted Tokyo to renew its attempts to take the case to the International Court of Justice.
Ohtsuki Kotaro, a counselor at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, on Tuesday delivered to the Korean Foreign Ministry a diplomatic document detailing a proposal for an ICJ trial.
Seoul rejected it, reiterating that the islets are its territory “historically, geographically and under international law.”
Japan illegally seized the islets in 1905 prior to its full-blown occupation of the Korean Peninsula. Seoul recaptured them following its independence in 1945 and deployed a small batch of coast guards there.
The archipelago nation has for decades repeated the territorial claim via school textbooks, diplomatic and defense papers and other methods.
Lee’s visit has thrown bilateral relations to their lowest ebb in decades and triggered criticism over his apparent populist aim. Public sentiment soured nonetheless, driving civic groups and far-right activists in both countries to stage rallies against each other.
By Shin Hyon-hee (
heeshin@heraldcorp.com)
