A summit in Russia next month could see Japan and South Korea at odds. Territorial disputes have raised tensions as Japan's cabinet considers its response to a visit by the South Korean president to the Dokdo/Takeshima Islands. Some 40 South Korean students want to swim to the islands.

Seoul (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Japan and South Korea may cancel a summit set to take place on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Vladivostok (Russia) next month. The cause is a dispute over the Dokdo/Takeshima Islets. Tokyo in fact is mulling ways to respond to a visit last week by South Korean president to islets both countries claim, an action that raised tensions and sent diplomats scrambling. Japan's Sankei Shimbun daily said Japan might suspend summits with South Korea, as well as an expected courtesy visit by the Japanese premier to its neighbour.

The disputed islets (Dokdo for Korea, Takeshima for the Japan) are almost halfway between the two countries and have rich fishing grounds. Last Friday, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak flew to the area where the South Korean Coast Guard has a base and visited the atolls amid tight security given is highly symbolic nature. Many South Koreans are still resentful of Japan for occupying their country between 1910 and 1945.

Japan for its part recalled its ambassador to Seoul and called in the South Korean ambassador to Tokyo to voice its protest.

Yesterday, Lee Myung-bak said that his visit was meant to put pressure on Tokyo to settle many of the issue left over from its colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula such as compensation for the so-called comfort women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II.

Although Japan and South Korea have close economic relations and share the same position on North Korea's nuclear programme, viewed as a threat to the whole region, they are still far apart over the past, which can still condition their relations.

In the meantime, some 40 South Koreans plan to swim 200 kilometres to the disputed islets.

Led by singer Kim Jang-hoon, the team of swimmers (pictured) plans to reach the area tomorrow to celebrate the liberation from Japanese colonialism in 1945.

"I will never make such a comment as 'Dokdo is our territory' when I arrive there," Kim said before leaving. "It's meaningless to do so as they are undeniably our territory."

 

• japan
• south
• korea
• disputed
• islands