Japan-South Korea ties hit turbulence
Japan has banned diplomats from using South Korea's Korean Air after the airline directed the maiden flight of an Airbus A380 service over disputed islands called Takeshima by Japanese and Dokdo by Koreans. The flare-up of the long-simmering East Asian island feud impacts on the nations' united front against North Korea's military ambitions and benefits China's muscle-flexing in the Pacific. -
Kosuke Takahashi (Jul 15, '11)
By Kosuke Takahashi
TOKYO - The flaring up of a long-simmering territorial dispute between Japan and South Korea over a group of small rocky islets threatens to roll back recent rapprochement between the neighbors seen in economic deals and cross-cultural exchanges.
The Japanese Foreign Ministry on July 11 instructed ministry officials to boycott Korean Air flights for one month in protest at the airline's demonstration flight last month above disputed islets called Takeshima by Japanese and Dokdo by Koreans that are located in the Sea of Japan (known in Korea as the East Sea).
The controversy could damage a culture boom in Tokyo called the Han-Ryu (Korean wave). Young Korean idol groups such as Girls' Generation and KARA are very popular in Japan. More importantly it could cause a significant geopolitical split.
The united front Tokyo and Seoul present against North Korea's nuclear and missile ambitions could be impacted, with China muscle-flexing in both the East China Sea and the South China Sea also benefiting from the East Asian feud.
This was Japan's first-ever step against a private airline in connection with the territorial dispute. The islets are claimed by both Japan and South Korea, but have been occupied by South Korea since 1954.
Korean Air was testing its new Airbus A380 - the world's largest passenger plane - and entered airspace above the contested islets on June 16, or a day before it went into service between Seoul Incheon International Airport and Tokyo Narita International Airport. The jet carried executives of the airline as well as South Korean and foreign reporters and photographers such as Reuters.
On Thursday, Japan's State Foreign Secretary Chiaki Takahashi said at a press conference that the ministry would not invite Korean Air officials to events it will host. He described the June 16 test flight as "a violation of Japan's airspace".
Ukeru Magosaki, the former chief of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's international intelligence bureau, criticized the ministry's sanctions against Korean Air.
"The boycott makes it more difficult to solve the territorial dispute," Magosaki, the former diplomat told Asia Times Online on Friday. "For the ministry, reducing tensions is more important than any other. The ministry is, in an opposite manner, escalating the problem."
The Asahi Shimbun, which first reported this issue on Wednesday, said Japan's conservative opposition had pressured the ministry to take further action, resulting in the move to boycott the airline.
This ministry has confirmed the boycott does not violate the Agreement on Government Procurement of the World Trade Organization, commonly known as the GPA, focusing on the subject of government procurement.
The gesture is purely symbolic, as Japanese diplomats use domestic airlines such as All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines.
South Korea's reaction
As expected, the harshest reaction has come from the South Korean government.
"The Japanese measure, regarded as a sort of sanction against a private company, can hardly be understood," Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Byung Jae on Thursday told reporters, demanding an immediate withdrawal of the Japanese foreign ministry's measure.
Cho said the South Korean government will take "stern" measures regarding the issue, but did not specify what measures it would take. "We will watch what measures Japan will take," the spokesman said.
Seoul also sent a message of protest against the measure on Tuesday to Kanehara Nobukatsu, minister for general affairs at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul and urged its cancelation.
The prelude of the recent flare-up first occurred in March when Seoul strongly protested against Tokyo's approval of history textbooks containing territorial claims to South Korean-controlled islets.
Then, in early April, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported construction work on a 2,700-square-meter maritime science facility on the disputed islets was expected to start later that month and set to be complete by December next year. Tokyo on April 5 lodged a protest with South Korea over Seoul's plans to build the facility.
More than 10 South Korean lawmakers, including several ministers, have visited the disputed territories since April.
Furthermore, three South Korean lawmakers on May 24 visited Kunashiri island, one of four islands off the coast of Hokkaido controlled by Russia but claimed by Japan - to the fury of Tokyo. It was the first time members of the South Korean National Assembly had set foot on the islands, which are known as the Northern Territories, called the Southern Kurils by Russians.
Given the saga that erupted from Japan's arrest of a Chinese fishing captain last year, Tokyo's reaction to the Korean Air flight may reflect internal wrangling over foreign policy. South Korean politicians also cannot make major concessions to Japan ahead of upcoming key elections in 2012 for parliament and the presidency.
Kosuke Takahashi is a Tokyo-based Japanese journalist. His twitter is @TakahashiKosuke
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