S. Korea protests Japan's punitive action against Korean Air

By Kim Deok-hyun BALI, Indonesia, July 23 (Yonhap) -- South Korea on Saturday filed a formal protest with Japan over a punitive measure Tokyo has taken against Korean Air for flying a test flight over the South's easternmost islets of Dokdo, its top envoy said. The South Korean foreign minister, Kim Sung-hwan, said he expressed "strong" regrets over the issue when he met with his Japanese counterpart, Takeaki Matsumoto, on the sidelines of an Asian security meeting in this Indonesian resort of Bali. North Korea's nuclear program was a major topic in the Kim-Matsumoto meeting, along with the Japanese action against Korean Air under which Japan's foreign ministry officials were ordered not to use Korean Air flights for one month starting on Monday, Seoul officials said. Japan, which has laid claim to the islets, argues that the Korean Air flight violated its territory. South Korea has dismissed the Japanese claim as nonsense. Last month, Korean Air flew a test flight of its first Airbus A380 over Dokdo, a group of islets that lie between South Korea and Japan. Seoul controls the rocky volcanic outcroppings as its territory. "During the talks with my Japanese counterpart, I expressed strong regrets over the Japanese government's measure against Korean Air," Kim told reporters after the meeting with Matsumoto. "I told Minister Matsumoto that such a measure counts for nothing in the current Korea-Japan relations," Kim said, declining to clarify how the Japanese minister responded. Dokdo, which lies closer to South Korea in the body of waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, has long been a thorn in relations between the two countries. South Korea keeps a small police detachment on the islets, effectively controlling them. South Korea rejects Japan's claims over Dokdo 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.