SKorean MPs visit disputed island despite Japan protest

By Alex Jensen

SEOUL

South Korean lawmakers rejected Japanese protests Monday by visiting the disputed Dokdo islets to mark the 71st anniversary of Tokyo’s World War II defeat, which the South celebrates as Liberation Day.

Japan’s foreign ministry had lodged a formal protest against the visit, as Tokyo claims the islets for itself -- calling them Takeshima.

Even the name of the body of water surrounding the rocky territory is sensitive, with South Korea insisting on using the title East Sea for the globally recognized Sea of Japan.

These are among a series of thorny issues stemming from Tokyo’s 1910-45 colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula -- although South Korea monitors Dokdo with a small police presence and regular military drills, having taken control of the islets following the peninsula’s liberation.

A group of 10 ruling and opposition politicians made the short trip by helicopter before brandishing South Korean flags on one of the main islets, which do lie closer to the South than Japan.

Na Kyung-won of the Saenuri Party dismissed Tokyo’s territorial claim as “meaningless” ahead of the visit -- the first in three years by South Korean lawmakers.

The South’s President Park Geun-hye spoke of the need to “squarely” face history during her Liberation Day speech but refrained from directly criticizing Japan amid efforts to improve ties with Tokyo.

Last week, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida vowed to transfer funds to support South Korean victims of colonial-era sexual enslavement in line with December’s so-called “comfort women” deal -- despite several elderly victims and civic activists having rejected the agreement as stopping short of a legal apology.

Meanwhile, Park made a new appeal for inter-Korean unification given that the peninsula’s liberation also paved the way for its division.

“Unification will provide a new opportunity, with which all can be treated equally without discrimination and disadvantages, and can pursue their happiness while realizing their full potential," the president said in reference to North Korea’s dire human rights record.

Pyongyang made its own statement on the subject in an editorial published by the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper Monday, describing unification as “the most urgent, life-or-death, greatest undertaking for the entire nation”.

But the Koreas remain far apart on how they would achieve unity, especially as dialogue has completely broken down over the authoritarian North Korean regime’s refusal to comply with global denuclearization demands.