Japan will stick to its plan to join this month's anti-proliferation exercise led by Korea, Seoul officials said Monday, in the latest sign that mounting diplomatic tension over the sovereignty issue of Dokdo may not affect other bilateral relations.
The two historical rivals have also held consultations over last week's talks in Beijing between North Korea and Japan, their first governmental meeting in four years, in another indication that the diplomatic chill over Dokdo has not swelled to other fronts.
Tension spiked after Japan strongly protested President Lee Myung-bak's unprecedented Aug. 10 trip to the South Korean islets of Dokdo, which Tokyo also claims as its territory. Relations deteriorated further after Lee later called on Japanese Emperor Akihito to apologize for Japan's colonial rule if he wishes to visit Korea.
Lee cited Japan's unrepentant attitude over its brutal 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula as a key reason for the trip to Dokdo.
While a military exchange program between South Korea and Japan was briefly suspended because of Seoul's regular military exercise to defend Dokdo starting Friday, Tokyo has said it will take part in a multinational naval exercise hosted by Korea to prevent the transfer of weapons of mass destruction later this month, according to officials at Seoul's defense ministry. The anti-proliferation drill is to begin in the southern waters of South Korea on Sept. 26.
Also on last Friday, Korea's chief nuclear envoy was briefed by his Japanese counterpart on the outcome of the Pyongyang-Tokyo talks, Seoul officials said.
Lim Sung-nam, Seoul's top envoy to six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons ambition, and his Japanese counterpart, Shinsuke Sugiyama, discussed the results of the Pyongyang-Tokyo talks during a phone call, a foreign ministry official said.
The developments showed that South Korea and Japan were "carefully separating the issue of Dokdo from other bilateral matters and weighing the option of easing their diplomatic confrontation," the official said on the condition of anonymity.
Over the weekend, South Korean Ambassador to Japan Shin Kak-soo and Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Kenichiro Sasae held a meeting in Tokyo, while South Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Ahn Ho-young met with Japanese Ambassador to South Korea Masatoshi Muto in Seoul.
Japan is also in a territorial dispute with China over rocky islets in the East China Sea, and the diplomatic confrontation between Tokyo and Beijing is showing signs of escalating.
Japan has long laid claims to Dokdo, which lies closer to South Korea in the body of water between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, in the country's school textbooks, government reports and other ways, stoking enmity in South Korea against its former colonial ruler.
South Koreans see those claims as amounting to denying Korea's rights because the country regained independence from Japanese colonial rule and reclaimed sovereignty over its territory, which includes Dokdo and many other islands around the Korean Peninsula.
The latest diplomatic tension is a reminder that bitter memories of Japan's colonial rule still run deep in Korea.
On Monday, an 81-year-old Korean man, Seo Jin-seop, launched a 24-hour hunger strike protesting Japan's claims to Dokdo by sitting next to a statue of a girl representing victims of Japanese World War II-era sexual slavery in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul.
"Korean people could forgive if Japan sincerely repents and apologizes for its wartime atrocities," Seo told reporters before starting the fast. "I can't tolerate this situation in which Japan has made noise over a visit by our president to our territory."
Meanwhile, a Japanese newspaper reported Monday that Tokyo has registered Dokdo on one of its state-owned asset lists and assessed the official price of the South Korean islets.
Japan's finance ministry has included Dokdo on its list of state-owned assets since the mid-1940s, according to the report by the Asahi Shimbun. (Yonhap)