South Korea and Japan appeared Thursday to be bracing for another high-seas crisis, as their senior diplomats ended two-day talks here without any significant agreement.
South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan and his Japanese counterpart Shotaro Yachi discussed a broad range of bilateral and global concerns, including the North Korean nuclear issue, officials in Seoul said.
Also high on the agenda was Japan's plan to conduct a survey on radioactive waste in South Korea's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) around Dokdo, they added. Seoul insists that Tokyo receive its formal approval for any scientific research in the waters. But Japan claims the South Korean island as its territory, saying it holds the right to conduct scientific research around them.
"The two sides had a very useful opportunity to exchange opinions," South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Choo Kyu-ho said. "There were sufficient discussions on the issue of Japan's planned survey on the radioactive contamination in the East Sea."
Choo said working-level officials will continue talks on the sensitive matter.
South Korea and Japan are habitually locked in disputes over their maritime research in the waters in the vicinity of Dokdo.
In April, Japan announced a plan for a hydrographic survey near Dokdo. South Korea vowed to use every means to block it. The two sides averted the crisis through a last-minute agreement between the vice foreign ministers.
Tokyo also informed Seoul recently of its plan to conduct a survey on radioactive waste in the waters within this year.
Their repeated spat over the scientific survey is mainly attributable to the vague demarcation of their EEZs due to the Dokdo issue.
Seoul and Tokyo had two-day talks aimed at drawing a clear line between their EEZs earlier this week but failed to reach a compromise.
Dokdo is a decades-old flash point for the two neighboring nations, which have seen their relations deteriorate in recent years.
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has made an annual pilgrimage to the Yasukuni Shrine. Korean and Chinese people believe the Tokyo shrine as a symbol of Japan's imperialistic past.
Japan has been also trying to whitewash its wartime atrocities by distorting school history textbooks, which critics say shows Japan's swing back to imperialism.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, who is likely to become Japan's next prime minister later this month, has pledged to amend the country's pacifist postwar constitution.
Adding fuel to Koreans' anxiety over Japan's arms build-up, former Japanese prime minister Yasuhiro Nakasone claimed Tuesday that his country needs to consider developing nuclear weapons as a deterrent against North Korean missiles and nuclear weapons.
Seoul, Sept. 7 (Yonhap News)
Seoul, Tokyo brace for high-seas crisis |
