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LEAD: Japan seeks S. Korea to 'understand' survey near disputed isles+
(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, April 19_(Kyodo) _ (EDS: UPDATING WITH SURVEY VESSELS' DEPARTURE AT 7TH GRAF)
Japanese Japan called on South Korea on Wednesday to "understand" its planned maritime survey near a group of disputed isles in the Sea of Japan.
"There is no problem in terms of international law that we conduct a scientific maritime survey within our country's exclusive economic zone," Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said at a press conference.
Abe, Tokyo's top 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.
"Japan is going to continue advancing our work without making a fuss in accordance with international law," he said. "We expect that the survey will be conducted peacefully with both sides dealing with it in a level-headed manner."
Abe commented as the South Korean coast guard deployed more than 18 patrol and other vessels around the South Korean-controlled islets, called Dokdo in Korea and Takeshima in Japan, to block Japanese survey ships.
Abe declined to confirm if the Japan Coast Guard has dispatched ships for the survey, saying, "We would like to decline any comment whatsoever about the survey's present situation and individual moves."
In a related development, two JCG survey vessels entered Sakaiminato port in Tottori Prefecture on Wednesday morning and left the port shortly before 3:30 p.m. It was not immediately known where the ships are heading.
In Seoul, meanwhile, South Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Ban Ki Moon said after a high-security meeting convened by President Roh Moo Hyun that Seoul demands that Tokyo immediately retract the planned survey, or otherwise it will "deal with it sternly in accordance with international law and domestic law."
Roh said Tuesday his government is considering giving up its decades-old policy of "quiet diplomacy" over the isle dispute in the face of Japan's "increasingly aggressive territorial claim," indicating a shift to a hard-line stance to confront the claim.
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