Top > World > 2006 > September > 2006-09-06

Japan and South Korea Discuss Islets

Amidst ongoing tensions with South Korea?s neighbor to the north, it has been announced that Seoul and former colonial occupier Japan have resumed a dialog over the disputed border lines of a series of islets situated between the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese home islands. The last time serious talks over the islands ? known as Takeshima in Japanese and Dokdo in Korean ? were held in the 1990s, negotiations broke down. However, since an incident in April when the South Korean navy challenged a Japanese vessel attempting to survey the area around the islets, negotiations once again came to the fore.

Just like their predecessors, observers of the two countries openly express their doubts that little will come out of this round of negotiations, save for a commitment to revisit the issue in the near future. Seoul has accused Tokyo of using the aforementioned survey plan as a ruse to boost a Japanese territorial claim to the islets, and as meeting in June failed to reach an agreement both parties decided to venture back to the negotiating table to see if some sort of compromise could be worked out.

The Takeshima/Dokdo islets lie roughly between Japan and the Korean Peninsula, since Korean independence (as well as the Korean War) tensions between both occupants of the Korean Peninsula and Japan have been tense, with raw feelings on both sides. The islets are believed by both Tokyo and Seoul to hold sizeable deposits of methane hydrate, a compound which can be used in the production of natural gas. The Takeshima/Dokdo islets are also said to be rich with other marine resources, and until a final border agreement is worked out between Japan and South Korea it is doubtful any resources will be able to be farmed.