PM expresses regret about Japan's fresh provocations over Dokdo

(ATTN: ADDS foreign ministry spokesman's quotes, details in paras 7-12)
SEOUL, July 19 (Yonhap) -- Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik said Tuesday that he feels "greatly regretful" about Tokyo's boycott of Korean Air over the airline's special flight last month above the South Korean islets of Dokdo and Japanese lawmakers' plan to visit nearby Ulleung Island.
Presiding over a weekly Cabinet meeting, Kim urged Japan to withdraw the ban on its civil servants' use of Korean Air out of respect for World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, according to government spokesman Park Sun-kyoo.
Japan's foreign ministry has instructed its officials to refrain from taking Korean Air flights for one month starting on Monday in protest of the airline's flight by its first Airbus A380 over Dokdo in mid-June.
Kim went on to say that he regretted an announcement by a group of lawmakers of Japan's conservative opposition Liberal Democratic Party that they will visit Ulleung, an East Sea island between South Korea's east coast and Dokdo, early next month.
"I think the measure taken against Korean Air, a civilian company, is an inappropriate one that could run against WTO agreements as well as international diplomatic customs," Kim was quoted as saying.
"As President (Lee Myung-bak) has declared before, it is an undeniable fact that Dokdo is part of South Korea's territory," he said.
Although the one-month boycott is viewed as a symbolic measure because most Japanese diplomats typically fly with Japan's flagship airline, South Korean officials said they were taking the issue seriously as the Japanese measure is "tantamount to a sanction against a private company."
"The measure is illogical and total nonsense, and its effectiveness and purpose are unclear," Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Byung-jae told reporters.
"The international community already knows that Japan has more to lose than gain from the measure because Dokdo is our territory," Cho said.
Cho also asked the Japanese lawmakers to refrain from visiting Ulleung Island if their planned visit is aimed at reasserting a territorial claim on Dokdo.
"The Republic of Korea is a free country where freedom of travel is guaranteed," Cho said, using South Korea's official name.
"However, if they visit Ulleung Island for the purpose of raising the issue of Dokdo, it will be absolutely no help to relations of the two nations, and we will review countermeasures with all possibilities opening," the spokesman said.
Japan's claims to the Dokdo islets in the East Sea have long been a thorn in relations between Seoul and Tokyo.
South Korea rejects the claims as nonsense because the country regained independence from Japan's 36-year colonial rule in 1945 and reclaimed sovereignty over its territory, including Dokdo and many other islands around the Korean Peninsula.
Tensions between South Korea and Japan resurfaced in April after Japan's Cabinet approved the "Diplomatic Blue Paper" report for 2011 with claims to the islets, and its education ministry approved a series of school textbooks claiming the islets as Japanese territory.



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