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3RD LD: S. Korea summons Japan envoy to protest maritime survey+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)SEOUL, April 20_(Kyodo) _ (EDS: UPDATING) South Korea's Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Ban Ki Moon summoned Japanese Ambassador to Seoul Shotaro Oshima on Thursday to reaffirm that South Korea will take "stern responses" if Japan conducts a maritime survey near a group of disputed islets, Ban's ministry said. Ban demanded the Japanese government immediately abandon its plan to conduct the survey near the islets, which are known as Dokdo in Korea and Takeshima in Japan. They are located in the Sea of Japan, which South Korea refers to as the East Sea. Yonhap News Agency quoted Ban as telling Oshima that South Korea sees Japan's planned maritime survey near the islets as a provocative act that violates South Korean sovereignty. Ban said South Korea would make its responses in line with international and domestic laws if Japan goes ahead with the plan and crosses South Korea's exclusive economic zone near the islets. South Korea has already deployed more than 18 ships, including patrol vessels, near the islets to block two Japan Coast Guard survey vessels from entering South Korea's EEZ. The country's EEZ overlaps with the EEZ claimed by Japan. President Roh Moo Hyun also criticized Japan on Thursday for trying to conduct the survey. "Even at this time, there are some people making claims over a place acquired by the past illegal history and occupied by a war of aggression," Roh told a group of Christian leaders, according to Yonhap. "We are facing a difficult situation in which problems cannot be resolved by just talking about reconciliation." The Japanese government says the survey is intended to investigate the seafloor topography ahead of an international conference related to the appellation of seafloor topography in Germany in June. Song Min Soon, chief secretary for foreign and national security policies for the president, however, said Thursday that South Korea would not accept a Japanese proposal that Japan drop its maritime survey plan if South Korea would not press its naming for the seafloor topography of the area during the international conference. Song made the remarks on KBS radio. The islets consist of two rocky outcrops with a total area of 0.23 square kilometer. South Korea's coast guard has stationed personnel on the larger one since 1954. Bilateral relations have deteriorated since March last year when a local Japanese assembly approved an ordinance designating Feb. 22 as "Takeshima Day" to underline Japan's claims to the islets. |