Tokyo asks Seoul to call off research trip
A survey ship left Busan at 3 a.m. Monday morning and began activities along the East Sea coast before preparing to survey ocean currents in an area of the East Sea that includes the waters near Dokdo. Jeong Yu-seop, head of the National Oceanographic Research Institute, said the survey "will proceed as announced on January 27." But he refused to disclose any information about the ship’s current location and when it will reach the area around the islets. The ship is scheduled to survey the waters off Ulsan, then proceed to Pohang, Hupo, Jukbyeon, Mukho, Ulleung island, the Dokdo islets, and then return to Ulsan. Since 2000, the government has studied the area on a bimonthly basis. The areas to be surveyed are found along 10 transversal survey lines established by the government. Within those 10 transversal lines lie two special observation zones, one between Mukho and Dokdo and another between Dokdo and Ulsan.The 2,533-ton ship has a crew of 24 and a research staff of nine people. Its current project will continue until July 17, and will include an area Japan claims is part of its exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Japan is calling for Korea to call off the study. Japanese chief cabinet secretary Shinzo Abe said he "would again like to encourage the Korean government to make the wise decision to refrain [from the survey]" and that Japan will "respond appropriately in accordance with international maritime law and [Japanese] law." Japan’s current strategy is not to use physical strength, such as the deployment of patrol boats to seize Korea’s survey ship, but to counter Korean activities with similar surveys by Japanese ships. The Japanese media are interpreting the Korean study as part of an effort to exert "actual control" over Dokdo. They are also expressing concern about the possibility of the same kind of confrontation that took place in April, when a Japanese research vessel sent to conduct a maritime survey around Dokdo was met with 20 South Korean gunboats. No fighting ensued, but the agreement reached between the two sides was shaky at best. In an unrelated development, a Chinese research ship entered the EEZ Japan claims near Senkaku, also claimed by China, and began a project of collecting seabed mud and seawater.
