By Lee Tae-hoon
The government plans to send a diplomatic letter this week that rejects Japan’s request to resolve an alleged territorial dispute over Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), a government source said Sunday.
“It won’t take long to write a note verbale,” the official said. “The government will decide when to send the letter after monitoring Japan’s moves. It can be early this week.”
The source said Seoul will reiterate its stance that Dokdo is not the subject of a territorial dispute as the islets are part of Korean territory, historically, geographically and under international law.
Japan sent a “note verbale,” an unsigned diplomatic note, to Korea last week to protest President Lee Myung-bak’s landmark visit to Dokdo on Aug. 10 and his subsequent demands for Japanese King Akihito’s apology over Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula.
Tokyo proposed taking the matter to the ICJ through the diplomatic document.
Japan made a similar proposal in 1954 and 1962, but Seoul refused both times, reaffirming its stance that no territorial dispute exists over the islets in the East Sea.
On Saturday, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda attempted to score political points by linking President Lee’s surprise visit to Dokdo with his lame duck status.
“The decision seems to have been heavily affected by domestic problems,” the Yomiuri Shimbun, a Japanese daily, quoted him as saying.
The Japanese newspaper alleged that President Lee is using Dokdo to avoid being a lame duck and turn the tide on the negative domestic political situation following the arrest of his older brother Lee Sang-deuk on bribery charges.
Some observers, however, claim that the diplomatic tensions between the two neighboring countries over Dokdo may subdue after Seoul’s sending of the note verbale.
“Japan has yet to make any response to Korea’s return of Noda’s protest letter over the weekend,” he said. “Tokyo might have realized that it has more to lose than gain by aggravating the bilateral diplomatic row over the islets.”
Seoul sent back Noda’s letter “on the grounds that Japanese claims are highly unjustified” and it “could be used in Japan's attempt to make Dokdo a disputed territory.”
The Korean government maintains that Japan must “immediately stop laying unjustified claims to Dokdo,” warning that it would take stern measures if Japan “fails to repent its past wrongdoing and continues taking a wrong attitude based on a wrong recognition of history.”
Japan has long laid claim to Dokdo, which lies closer to Korea in the body of water between the two countries, in school textbooks, government reports and other ways, stoking enmity in South Korea against its former colonial ruler.
Japan, however, is well aware that the chance of settling the issue of Dokdo at the ICJ is highly unlikely because Tokyo must secure Seoul’s consent to have the case heard at the court.
Koreans regard Japan’s territorial claims over Dokdo as a sign Tokyo has not fully repented for its imperialist past, including the forcing of Korean women into sexual slavery for Japanese troops during World War II.