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| Kenji Kanasugi, front, minister and deputy chief of mission at the Japanese Embassy to Korea, leaves the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tuesday, after being called by Director-General for Northeast Asian Affairs Lee Sang-deok over Tokyo's renewed claim on Korea's Dokdo islets. / Yonhap |
By Yi Whan-woo
The foreign ministry is facing calls for a drastic change in its "quiet diplomacy" with Japan.
Kim Yeol-su, an international politics professor at Sungshin Women's University, said Japan's recent actions related to Dokdo can be blamed, in part, on Korea's failure to deal with Japan's provocations properly in the past.
"The Abe government has made a series of diplomatic provocations, including its revision of its pacifist Constitution to give it a larger military role."
The ministry disagreed with that assessment.
"I can't agree with those who argue that the government is adhering to a policy of ‘quiet diplomacy,'" foreign ministry spokesman Noh Kwang-il said Tuesday. "We're working closely with the related ministries to deal with Japan in a calm, yet unyielding manner."
In its 2015 Diplomatic Bluebook, released on Tuesday, Japan's foreign ministry repeated its sovereignty claim over Dokdo, which lies between Korea and Japan in the East Sea. The document also stated that the islets belonged to Japan inherently.
Korea has controlled the islets since its liberation from Japanese colonial rule (1910-45).
Seoul maintains its stance that Dokdo has been under its sovereignty in terms of history, geography and international law.
Meanwhile, Japan has argued it legally incorporated the islets, which it calls Takeshima, into Shimane Prefecture on Feb. 22, 1905.
The release of the bluebook came after Japan's education ministry irked Seoul Monday with its review of 18 new middle school textbooks, which included Dokdo claims.
Director-General for Northeast Asian Affairs Lee Sang-deok at Seoul's foreign ministry summoned Kenji Kanasugi to his office Tuesday in protest against Tokyo's provocation. Kanasugi is the second-highest ranking official at the Japanese embassy to Seoul under Ambassador Koro Bessho.
Such summonses do not make much difference.
On Tuesday, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga, instead said his country cannot accept Seoul's protest.
Some sympathized with the ministry and its apparent lack of options.
"In territorial disputes, a country that occupies certain disputed territories capitalizes on ‘quiet diplomacy' against its foe," said Jo Yang-hyeon, the research director at the Center for Diplomatic History Studies at Korea National Diplomatic Academy.
He referred to a stand-off between Japan and China over a group of inhabited islands controlled by Japan in the East China Sea.
Tokyo calls them the Senkaku Islands while they are known as the Diaoyudao Islands in Beijing, which claims it has ownership over them based on historical facts.
"Japan is trying to ignore China, while Beijing has been seeking to fuel the dispute over the islands as much as it can. The same situation can be applied in the Dokdo dispute and it's right for us to ignore Japan."
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