SEOUL, April 25 (UPI) -- South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun on Tuesday declared an end to the country's so-called "quiet diplomacy" in dealing with Japan's territorial claim to their disputed islets, which is likely to sour ties between the two neighbors.
In a special address broadcast live nationwide, Roh blasted Japan's claim to Dokdo islets as a move to revive its imperialistic expansionism, referring to Japan's harsh military occupation of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
"Dokdo has a special historical meaning. To our people, Dokdo is the symbol of our full restoration of sovereignty," Roh said in the speech, noting the chain of islets was the first part of land annexed by Japan in the process of invading the Korean peninsula.
"Japan's Dokdo claims are also an attempt to justify its past crimes, such as slaughter, plundering, torture, forced labor and imprisonment (during the colonial rule)," Roh said in the highest-profile criticism of Japan yet from South Korea. "This is denying South Korea's full liberation and independence."
Dokdo, a cluster of two main islets and dozens of attached rocks and reefs that lies about halfway between the Korean peninsula and Japan's largest islet, Honshu, has long been a source of dispute between the two neighbors. Japan calls it Takeshima.
The dispute worsened last week as Japan planned to launch a maritime exploration project in waters near Dokdo, which South Korea considered as "grave infringement on territorial sovereignty."
The row was resolved diplomatically after Japan's Vice Foreign Minister Shotaro Yachi traveled to Seoul over the weekend. Under the agreement, Japan gave up its survey plan in return for Seoul's pledge to cancel plans to name the seafloor topography at an international conference scheduled for June in Germany.
The last-minute deal averted a high-seas showdown around the disputed islets between two countries. But Roh said his government would no longer negotiate over the territorial issue, vowing to face a possible confrontation with Japan to defend its territory.
"This is a problem that can never be given up or negotiated, no matter at what cost or sacrifice," he said. "We will react strongly and sternly against any physical provocation. We will mobilize all its national and diplomatic resources to take issue with Japan's unreasonable demands and press Japan to rectify its wrongdoing."
Roh also said South Korea would push for registering Korean names for undersea features in the waters surrounding Dokdo, dismissing Japan's protest.
"Japan had claimed the names for the undersea features within the South Korean exclusive economic zone in the East Sea (Sea of Japan). Thus it is our natural right to seek to register our own Korean names for such undersea features," Roh said.
Japan has said it will conduct a maritime survey near the disputed islets if South Korea proposes naming seafloor topography near the area in the future. "Japan will relaunch the maritime survey if Seoul makes any moves to register Korean cartographic names," Yachi said.
Roh said his government will fully review its "quiet diplomacy" in coping with Japan's repeated territorial claim. South Korea has long maintained a "policy of neglect" to prevent the issue from escalating into a full-scale territorial dispute.
"It will squarely tackle the issue of Dokdo, together with the issues of Japan's distorting of history textbooks and homage to the Yasukuni shrine, in terms of ... protecting our history of independence and sovereignty," he said.
The Yasukuni war shrine in Tokyo honors 2.5 million Japanese war dead, including a dozen war criminals from World War II, and is viewed by Koreans and Chinese as a symbol of Japanese imperialism.
"Japan should shake off and come out of its dark nostalgia for its imperialist and invasion history," Roh said. "The relationship between South Korea and Japan cannot be normalized as long as Japan keeps justifying its wrongful history."
Roh's tough statement was largely welcomed by South Koreans, with calls for tougher stance against Japan.
Experts say records show South Korea has owned the rocky outcrops since AD 512 and had ruled them since the 15th century. Korea regained independence following Japan's 1910-45 period of colonial rule, taking back its sovereignty over land, including Dokdo and other islets around the Korean peninsula.
"Japan needed Dokdo for a strategic watchtower when it declared a war against Russia in 1904," said Kim Byung-ryul, a law professor at the Korean National Defense University. "Dokdo was the first part of Korean territory Japan forcibly annexed in its war of aggression."
