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2ND LD: Korea warns Japan over survey near disputed islets+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)SEOUL, April 17_(Kyodo) _ (EDS: UPDATING WITH REMARKS OF JAPAN FOREIGN MINISTRY OFFICIAL YACHI) South Korea's Prime Minister-designate Han Myung Sook called Monday for a "stern response" if Japan conducts a maritime survey near the South Korea-controlled islets Dokdo, which are also claimed by Japan. "(The survey) is an intrusion into our territory and a stern response is needed to protect our territory," Han said at a parliamentary confirmation hearing. The islets are known in Japan as Takeshima. Han at the same time stressed a "calm response, rather than a fragmentary and emotional response, is needed to cope with Japan's move to make Dokdo an area of conflict." In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe called on both sides to deal with the matter in a calm manner and in conformity with international law. Earlier in the day, the South Korean government held a meeting of ministers on the islets, including the foreign affairs and trade minister and those from maritime affairs and fisheries. Details of what was discussed are not available, but Yonhap News Agency reported South Korea has decided to take tough actions such as the seizure of any Japanese vessel that ignores warnings and enters South Korea's exclusive economic zone. Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Shotaro Yachi told a separate news conference in Tokyo that it is "desirable" for Japan and South Korea to create a framework in which both sides will give prior notification to each other to allow them to conduct their own scientific surveys in a smooth manner in waters where their claims overlap. According to Yachi, the ministry's top bureaucrat, the Japan Coast Guard is scheduled to conduct a survey in the southwestern area of the Sea of Japan sometime between April 14 and June 30 and the survey is meant to investigate the seafloor topography ahead of an international conference related to the appellation of seafloor topography in June. Tokyo's move comes in response to South Korea's move to propose naming the seafloor topography of the area in question during the conference, he said, adding that Japan needs to gather the "necessary data" to create a counterproposal. Yachi added that Japan has not done any survey in this area for the past 30 years while South Korea has conducted such surveys every year for the past four years despite Japan's protests. Last Friday, South Korea demanded Japan cancel the maritime survey near the islets, after the Japanese government posted a public notice it would send a Japan Coast Guard vessel near the islets. The Korea Herald newspaper said in an editorial Monday that Japan should scrap the "ill-conceived plan" or conduct the survey within its own economic zone. "No wonder Korea suspects the planned maritime survey is another attempt by Japan to seek advantage by turning the Korea-controlled islets into an 'area of conflict'," the editorial said. |