Seoul urges Japanese lawmakers not to visit island near Dokdo

SEOUL, July 26 (Yonhap) -- South Korea has urged some Japanese lawmakers to refrain from visiting an island near the South's easternmost islets of Dokdo in an attempt to lay claims to the islets, officials said Tuesday.
Four lawmakers of Japan's conservative opposition Liberal Democratic Party said last week they will visit Ulleung Island early next month in the East Sea, the closest they can get to Dokdo without receiving permission from the South Korean government.
Dokdo, which lies closer to South Korea in the 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.
"It will be desirable for the Japanese lawmakers to refrain from making the visit if the purpose of their visit is to raise the Dokdo issue," Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Byung-jae told reporters.
South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan conveyed the stance to his Japanese counterpart, Takeaki Matsumoto, during their talks on the sidelines of an Asian security meeting last week, Cho said.
The Seoul government "puts all options on table and considers its responses as the situation develops," Cho said.
The diplomatic tension between Seoul and Tokyo resurfaced this month after the Japanese government took a punitive measure against Korean Air for flying a test flight over Dokdo.
In what South Korean officials described as an "unreasonable, nonsensical and ineffective" measure, Tokyo ordered its diplomats to boycott Korean Air flights for one month from July 18 in protest over the test flight of the Airbus A380 last month.
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.