ID :
12406
Sun, 07/13/2008 - 21:27
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/12406
The shortlink copeid
Fukuda told Lee of Japan's plan to state Takeshima ownership
TOKYO, July 13 Kyodo - Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda informed South Korean President Lee Myung Bak during their talks in Hokkaido last Wednesday of Japan's plan to state in an educational document that two disputed islets in the Sea of Japan are part of its territory, according to a government source.
South Korea's presidential office on Sunday denied the Japanese news report that Fukuda had informed Lee of the Takeshima plan in the meeting on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit in Hokkaido.
Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura also conveyed the plan to South Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Yu Myung Hwan when they met in Sapporo last Tuesday, but Tokyo is still working on the specific wording of the statement in the document that serves as a nonbinding teaching guideline, the source said.
On Friday, education minister Kisaburo Tokai suggested that no firm decision had been made. After meeting Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura, Tokai told reporters that ''coordination is being made'' on whether or not to cite the issue in the document.
The source noted that given that the South Korean parliament adopted a resolution against Japan on Friday making the statement in the document, ''Japan for its part is left with no choice but to state ownership so long as that is what (Japan) claims,'' the source said.
A South Korean presidential secretary was quoted by Yonhap News Agency as saying, ''Fukuda didn't express any Japanese government position on Dokdo during his meeting with President Lee...The situation of the brief Lee-Fukuda meeting was not appropriate (for mentioning Tokyo's formal position).''In an interview with Kyodo News in Seoul on July 6, Lee urged Japan not to follow through with the plan, saying such a move would dampen future-oriented bilateral relations.
The pair of South Korean-controlled rocky islets in the Sea of Japan are called Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea.
The two countries have long been at odds over the ownership of Takeshima, which consists of two small uninhabited islets and numerous reefs covering a total area of 210,000 square meters.
The document in question will supplement Japan's new educational guideline for social studies at junior high schools from the 2012 school year starting in April that year.
Such documents, to be compiled for each subject in junior high school, are nonbinding and serve as guidelines for teachers and textbook publishers.
South Korea's presidential office on Sunday denied the Japanese news report that Fukuda had informed Lee of the Takeshima plan in the meeting on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit in Hokkaido.
Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura also conveyed the plan to South Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Yu Myung Hwan when they met in Sapporo last Tuesday, but Tokyo is still working on the specific wording of the statement in the document that serves as a nonbinding teaching guideline, the source said.
On Friday, education minister Kisaburo Tokai suggested that no firm decision had been made. After meeting Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura, Tokai told reporters that ''coordination is being made'' on whether or not to cite the issue in the document.
The source noted that given that the South Korean parliament adopted a resolution against Japan on Friday making the statement in the document, ''Japan for its part is left with no choice but to state ownership so long as that is what (Japan) claims,'' the source said.
A South Korean presidential secretary was quoted by Yonhap News Agency as saying, ''Fukuda didn't express any Japanese government position on Dokdo during his meeting with President Lee...The situation of the brief Lee-Fukuda meeting was not appropriate (for mentioning Tokyo's formal position).''In an interview with Kyodo News in Seoul on July 6, Lee urged Japan not to follow through with the plan, saying such a move would dampen future-oriented bilateral relations.
The pair of South Korean-controlled rocky islets in the Sea of Japan are called Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea.
The two countries have long been at odds over the ownership of Takeshima, which consists of two small uninhabited islets and numerous reefs covering a total area of 210,000 square meters.
The document in question will supplement Japan's new educational guideline for social studies at junior high schools from the 2012 school year starting in April that year.
Such documents, to be compiled for each subject in junior high school, are nonbinding and serve as guidelines for teachers and textbook publishers.
