Premier Regrets US Dokdo Stance
By Na Jeong-ju
Staff Reporter
Prime Minister Han Seung-soo expressed regret Tuesday over a U.S. agency's decision to re-label South Korea's Dokdo islets as ``undesignated sovereignty,'' saying the country will take all possible measures to strengthen its territorial rights.
Han visited Ulleung-do and then Dokdo in the East Sea, becoming the first prime minister to visit the easternmost islets.
He was accompanied by Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Yu In-chon and Minister of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs Chung Jong-hwan and encouraged the residents and police officers stationed there.
``Dokdo is the son of our country. It cannot be taken away by anyone,'' Han said after arriving at the rocky islets by helicopter. He set up a monument saying ``Dokdo is our territory.''
Later in the day, Japan's chief government spokesman Nobutaka Machimura called Han's trip to Dokdo ``inappropriate,'' Japan's Kyodo News reported.
At a Cabinet meeting early in the morning, Han said, ``It is very regrettable that the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (BGN) changed Dokdo's status on its Web site.''
``Obviously, the decision is not based on historical fact. We should make every effort to rectify it.''
He instructed the Cabinet to set up measures to counter Japan's repeated claims to Dokdo and to check how the islets are described on foreign maps.
The response came a couple of days after the BGN changed Dokdo's status from its previous recognition of it as part of South Korean territory.
President Lee Myung-bak has been pressed to sack Ambassador to the United States Lee Tae-sik for his failure to coordinate with U.S. officials over Dokdo. Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Yu Myung-hwan alsoi faces pressure to resign regarding a series of diplomatic blunders over Dokdo and North Korea.
Some observers say the change of the BGN's stance shows Washington is taking sides with Tokyo, which has stepped up its campaign to turn Dokdo into the site of an international territorial dispute.
An outraged President Lee, who is now on vacation, instructed the Cabinet to chart countermeasures, according to Cheong Wa Dae.
``The U.S. position for decades has been not to take a position regarding the sovereignty of the islands in question,'' Gonzalo Gallegos, deputy spokesman for the State Department, told reporters, Monday. ``The change to the BGN Web site does not represent a change in U.S. policy, but rather an action to ensure consistency with that policy.''
An official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said he was told by an unnamed source from the White House that the BGN decision was not based on political consideration.
``The U.S. official told me that the decision was purely based on opinions from geographical experts, not from politicians,'' the South Korean official said, asking not to be named. ``They didn't consider the political impact the decision will have on relations between Seoul and Tokyo, and Seoul and Washington.''
The BGN changed the name of Dokdo to Liancourt Rocks in 1977, but had stated on its documents the islets were owned by South Korea. The latest decision means the agency dropped its recognition of the islets as Korean territory, and may spur provocation from Japan, according to South Korean officials.
Experts say the United States uses different names for disputed islands in the East China Sea, known as Diaoyutai in Chinese and Shenkaku in Japanese, but made no changes to the Russian territorial claims to the Kuril Islands in the northwest Pacific that are also claimed by Japan.