South Korea bars Japanese delegation on mission to claim islands

Aug 1, 2011, 8:43 GMT

Seoul - Three Japanese opposition lawmakers were refused entry to South Korea Monday after attempting a private mission to press Japan's claim to a group of islands in the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea.

The three members of the Liberal Democrat Party (LDP) refused to board any flight out of Seoul's Gimpo International Airport three hours after landing.

They insisted they had come to discuss the issue of the Seoul-administrated Dokdo islands with the government and visit the contested territories, which are called Takeshima in Japan, the Yonhap News Agency said.

Immigration authorities said they feared for the visitors' safety at the hands of activists and invoked legislation allowing them to ban people who pose a threat to national security or public safety.

'In light of our two countries' relations, we are doing our best to convince them to return voluntarily,' an official speaking anonymously was quoted as saying by Yonhap.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano asked Seoul to reconsider the ban and said his government was unable to accept the South Korean response to the attempted visit.

The three parliamentarians - Yoshitaka Shindo, Tomomi Inada and Masahisa Sato - had been urged to postpone their visit by their own party.

LDP leader Sadakazu Tanigaki said 'early August will be a delicate period' with important debates in the Diet, or parliament.

The islands, also called Liancourt Rocks, are the easternmost territory under Seoul's administration and lie about halfway between the two countries.

South Korea regained control of the islands in 1945 after 35 years of colonial rule by Tokyo.

The islands have a surface area of 0.2 square kilometres and a current permanent population of three people, according to their South Korea-based website.

The waters surrounding them are rich fishing grounds and thought to contain valuable underground mineral deposits, in particular natural gas.

In March, Seoul lodged a diplomatic protest when Tokyo authorized a school textbook listing the islands as Japanese territory.

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