Asia-Pacific

S. Korea, Japan island talks break down in discord

(AP)
Updated: 2006-04-22 16:20

Talks between South Korea and Japan broke down in discord Saturday, with the two countries failing to settle a dispute over a set of resource-rich islets that has threatened to spark a high-seas showdown and strained bilateral relations, a news report said.

Negotiators ended the talks Saturday afternoon, midway through the second-straight day of meetings, South Korea's YTN news said. A spokesman at South Korea's Foreign Ministry, Choo Kyu-ho, said talks were still underway but added that the ministry will hold a press conference later in the afternoon.

Japanese Foreign Ministry officials were not immediately available for comment, but Japan's Kyodo News agency cited the Japanese Embassy as saying discussions were continuing.

A top Japanese envoy made an emergency trip to the South Korean capital on Friday to try breaking the impasse, which was triggered by Tokyo's plans to send survey ships into the disputed waters around the islands.

South Korea vehemently opposes Japan's survey plans and has dispatched 20 gunboats to the waters, and has warned of a possible physical confrontation if Japan proceeds.

Friday's talks "failed to find common ground," South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said after lengthy discussions with his Japanese counterpart, Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs Shotaro Yachi.

Yachi described the initial encounter as "severe," while a South Korean official said the talks were "tense and difficult." He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the matter.

The rocky outcroppings _ called Dokdo by Koreans and Takeshima in Japan _ lie halfway between the countries and are claimed by both. The area is a rich fishing ground and is also believed to have methane hydrate deposits, a potential source of natural gas.

The showdown highlights the rising stakes of rival territorial claims in East Asia, and South Korea's deep-rooted bitterness over Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule.

Communist North Korea _ which is technically still at war with rival South because the 1950-53 Korean War ended only in a cease fire _ suggested that the two Koreas offer a joint response to Japan's survey plan.

North Korea made the overture at Cabinet-level talks being held with the South in Pyongyang, according to a pool report from South Korean journalists accompanying the delegation.

The report did not give further details.

Japan maintains it has the right to conduct the survey under international law, but has kept its two unarmed survey ships out of the waters as both sides try to find a diplomatic solution.

Tokyo maintains the survey is needed to match South Korean efforts to map the sea floor and name underwater formations including basins and ridges. Seoul is reportedly planning to try registering Korean names for several of the formations at an international ocean-mapping conference to be held in June in Germany.

Among the proposals may be a request to change the name of the Sea of Japan, the international acceptance of which Seoul has long considered a colonial vestige. Seoul prefers the moniker East Sea for the body of water separating the countries.