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3RD LD: Seoul demands Tokyo immediately drop maritime survey plan+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)SEOUL, April 19_(Kyodo) _ (EDS: UPDATING WITH ADOPTION OF RESOLUTION AT NATIONAL ASSEMBLY IN 8TH-9TH GRAFS) South Korea on Wednesday demanded that Japan immediately drop its plan to conduct a maritime survey near a group of disputed isles in the Sea of Japan, while leaving the door open for bilateral negotiations if the plan is scrapped. "If Japan goes ahead with the survey in South Korea's exclusive economic zone, the government will deal with sternly in accordance with international law and domestic laws," Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Ban Ki Moon said after a security policy meeting convened by President Roh Moo Hyun. "The Japanese government will be held responsible for any consequences that may arise from its act," he told reporters. When asked whether Seoul could consider the proposed establishment of a consultation channel between the two sides on maritime surveys of the contested waters, he said Seoul is willing to hold "various negotiations if Japan voluntarily scraps the survey plan." Roh convened the meeting of ministers in charge of foreign and security affairs in response to Japan's dispatch of two Japan Coast Guard vessels for the survey near waters of the South-Korean controlled islets, called Dokdo in South Korea and Takeshima in Japan, which also claims them. In a meeting with a group of traders in Seoul earlier in the day, Ban said, "We don't want the situation to worsen, but we will take all steps to protect the sovereignty over Dokdo," Yonhap News Agency reported. South Korea's coast guard said it has deployed more than 18 ships, including patrol vessels, near the isles to block the Japanese vessels from entering the EEZ that South Korea has declared. The National Assembly also passed a resolution Wednesday, urging the government to take strong countermeasures that would prevent Japan from conducting the survey within South Korea's EEZ, which overlaps with the EEZ declared by Japan. The resolution, unanimously passed by 241 lawmakers in attendance at the plenary session, demanded the Japanese government immediately stop the survey plan. Japan had initially planned to launch the survey as early as Thursday, but it is now expected to delay it to around late April in response to the South Korean protests. The two Japanese vessels that departed Tokyo entered Sakaiminato port in Tottori Prefecture, western Japan, on Wednesday morning and left the port shortly before 3:30 p.m. It was not immediately known where the ships were heading. 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 June. It comes in response to South Korea's move to propose naming the seafloor topography of the area in question during the conference. In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe told a press conference Wednesday, "There is no problem in terms of international law in conducting a scientific maritime survey within our country's exclusive economic zone." Abe, the top government spokesman, repeatedly called for a "level-headed" response by both sides to the matter in accordance with international law, but also said Tokyo intends to go ahead with the planned survey. Dokdo consists of two small islets with a total area of 0.23 square kilometer. South Korea's coast guard has stationed personnel on the larger islet since 1954. Bilateral relations have deteriorated since a Japanese local assembly in March last year approved an ordinance designating Feb. 22 as "Takeshima Day" to press Japan's claims to the islets. |