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Japan's challenge of sovereignty not to be tolerated: S.Korea
News Date: 17th March 2005
South Korea said Thursday it will not tolerate Japan challenging its territorial sovereignty or
distorting their shared history, labeling such moves as amounting to "justifying its past invasion" of the Korean Peninsula.
Above wording is part of a strong-worded statement issued by South Korean National Security Council (NSC) on Thursday afternoon after it convened a meeting.
The meeting was called to discuss counter-measures to a Japan's provincial assembly's ordinance, which aimed at promoting Japan's claim to Dokdo, a chain of disputed islets located in the East Sea (Sea of Japan). Japan calls the island as "Takeshima".
Japanese Shimane Prefecture Council on Wednesday approved an ordinance to designate every Feb. 22 as "Takeshima Day" so as to promote public awareness of Japan's claim to the islets.
The NSC is an administrative body under the direct leadership of South Korean president. South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young currently doubles chairman of the NSC's standing
committee.
"We will take measures to firmly defend our sovereignty over Dokdo," Chung read the statement in a press conference.
"A recent series of Japanese actions force us to fundamentally doubt whether Japan has an intention to co-exist with its neighbours as a peaceful force in Northeast Asia," Chung said.
Such Japanese moves "seriously undermine South Korea-Japan friendship and go against to the aspiration of neighbouring countries in this region for peace and prosperity," he said.
This year is the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations of the two countries.
Chung also urged Japan to change its "unrepentant attitude" and said South Korea will explore new ways to make Japan correct its "
anachronistic history distortion." But he did not elaborate what kind of means the South Korean government would take.
The passage of the Japan's provincial ordinance aroused furious anger in South Korea, which now is taking effective control of Dokdo with deployment of a garrison of coast police.
The South Korean government and people also made strong reaction to a new edition of a Japanes school textbook which was reportedly seriously distort the history of Japanese aggression
against neighboring countries and colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula.
South Korea insists that the Dokdo islets, located some 89 kilometers southeast to South Korean Uleung Island and 160 kilometers northwest to Japanese Oki Island, have been listed as its territory in history literature since the fifth century.
While Japan also claims the islets have been its territory since the 17th century, as written in literature.
On Feb. 22, 1905, the Japanese Shimane Prefecture issued a notice that claimed the islets part of its land, which became the backbone of Japan's claim over Dokdo.
However, South Korea says the argument is inefficacy, because it was made when Korea's Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) was deprived of its diplomacy by Japan.
Moreover, South Korea points out the Japanese notice came five years latter than an official decree over the sovereignty of Dokdo issued by Joseon Dynasty's last King Gojong.
Japan started annexation of the Korean Peninsula in the early 20th century and completed it in 1910. After liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945, the first South Korean President Lee Seung-man issued a presidential declaration on the dominion over the coastal sea and sovereignty over Dokdo in January 1952.
Source: GNA
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