Asia-Pacific

ROK to consider bolstering control of disputed islets

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-04-02 15:42

SEOUL - Republic of Korea's (ROK) president Lee Myung-bak said on Friday he will review ways to strengthen the country's effective control over the disputed islets lying halfway from ROK and Japan.

In a meeting between Lee and the ruling party officials, the governing Grand National Party (GNP) Chairman Chung Mong-joon asked the president to seek ways to bolster ROK's control of the islets, and the president vowed to actively review such measures in cooperation with the party, according to the GNP.

The move comes after the Japanese government earlier this week renewed its sovereignty claim over the set of outcroppings in the East Sea by approving elementary school textbooks that describe the islets, known as Dokdo in ROK and Takeshima in Japan, as its territory.

The textbooks claim ROK, which has maintained an effective control of the islets, "illegally occupies" them.

Seoul has expressed strong regret over Tokyo's latest sovereignty claim over the set of islets, and Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan summoned Japanese Ambassador in ROK Toshinori Shigeie to file an official complaint.

Meanwhile, ROK parliament adopted a resolution calling on Tokyo to withdraw its approval of the textbooks, calling the move a "provocative" act that infringes upon the country's territorial sovereignty.