WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- The U.S. cable news channel CNN carried a detailed report Tuesday on a South Korean singer's swimming journey to Dokdo, a set of islets in the East Sea at the center of a renewed diplomatic spat between Seoul and Tokyo.
CNN described Kim Jang-hoon's three-day project as "swimming into the diplomatic row" over Dokdo between the neighboring nations.
Along with dozens of college students and other amateur swimmers, Kim began a 55-hour, 230-kilometer relay swim from a southeastern port in South Korea. They are accompanied by a small flotilla of escort boats.
Dokdo, a largely uninhabited pair of volcanic outcroppings, is effectively controlled by South Korea but also claimed by Japan.
Kim's group is scheduled to arrive in Dokdo at around 2 p.m. Wednesday, local time. That's when Korea marks the 67th anniversary of the liberation from 36 years of Japan's colonial rule.
Kim's campaign came as the Dokdo issue has drawn renewed public attention after President Lee Myung-bak's historic trip to the islets last week, a move strongly protested by the Japanese government.