The unprecedented visit by President Lee Myung-bak to Dokdo, the easternmost South Korean islets that Japan has claimed as its territory, has refocused attention on whether Seoul must reinforce its effective control of them to help counter Tokyo's claims.
Lee became the first South Korean president ever to visit Dokdo last Friday, demonstrating a departure from Seoul's long-held approach of "quite diplomacy" over the issue that has long been a thorn in ties with Tokyo.
In the wake of Lee's visit, Japan said it was considering taking the issue to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), but South Korea said it will not accept the Japanese move because Dokdo is a part of Korean territory "historically, geographically and under international law."
Experts said historical documents show Korea's ancient governments controlled Dokdo, which lies closer to South Korea in the body of water between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. South Korea keeps a police detachment on the islets, effectively controlling them.
In the eyes of some Korean experts, Seoul should do more to assert its sovereign authority over Dokdo or may risk becoming mired in a Japanese plot to make the issue an international dispute.
Lee Jang-hee, a law professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, highlighted a territorial dispute between Singapore and Malaysia over the Pedra Branca islets.
The ICJ ruled in 2008 that the Pedra Branca is under Singapore's sovereignty, citing the active exercise of sovereign authority over the islets by Singapore, Lee said.
"The 2008 ruling showed that the owner of a territory was changed because the owner did not actively exercise the sovereign authority," the professor said.
Singapore had managed to win the ICJ ruling because it had taken more actions than Malaysia, Lee said.
So, did President Lee's visit to Dokdo help strengthen Seoul's effective control of the islets? Experts disagree.
Although the visit was considered an expression of willingness as the head of a state that exercises sovereignty over Dokdo, it could not be accepted as evidence of an actual rule under international law, they said.
"It is difficult to view the Dokdo visit by President Lee as having a legal effect, but the visit showed the willingness to exercise territorial sovereignty," said Nam Sang-koo, a senior researcher at the state-funded Northeast Asian History Foundation.
Japan, which ruled the Korean Peninsula as a colony from 1910 to 1945, has long laid claims to Dokdo in school textbooks, government reports and other ways, undercutting better ties between the neighboring nations, along with its refusal to resolve the comfort women and other issues stemming from the colonial rule.
Bitter memories of the harsh colonial rule still run high and many Koreans see Japan's claims to Dokdo as amounting to denying Korea's rights because the country regained independence from colonial rule and reclaimed sovereignty over its territory, including Dokdo and many other islands around the Korean Peninsula.
Koreans also view the claims as a sign Japan has not fully repented for its imperialist past. (Yonhap)