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S. Korea to launch special task force on disputed islets+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)SEOUL, April 26_(Kyodo) _ South Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Ban Ki Moon said Wednesday his ministry will launch a new task force to better cope with Japan's claim to Dokdo -- South Korea-controlled islets in the Sea of Japan. "The Dokdo task force will be headed by Assistant Minister Ryu Kwang Sok and staffed by diplomats experienced in Japanese affairs," Ban was quoted by Yonhap News Agency as telling reporters. On Tuesday, President Roh Moo Hyun called Japan's claim to the islets, known as Takeshima in Japan, "intolerable." Referring to the Japanese invasion and occupation of the Korean Peninsula before and during World War II, Roh described Tokyo's claim to the islets as tantamount to "justifying its history of crimes committed during the war of aggression." Roh's special statement, broadcast live, was issued after South Korea and Japan averted a confrontation last Saturday by agreeing to Japan's withdrawal of a plan to conduct a maritime survey near the islets. South Korea agreed, in turn, to delay its plan to name seafloor topography near the islets, which overlaps the exclusive economic zones of South Korea and Japan, at an international conference in June in Germany. |