At an urgent press conference, South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Lee Kyu-hyung said South Korea would "take every necessary measure" to have the Japanese legislation scrapped, warning that "Japan is to blame for all consequences." (Photo: Xinhua)

    SEOUL, March 16 (Xinhuanet) -- South Korea on Wednesday condemned a local Japanese assembly's endorsement of a bill backing Japan's claim to a chain of disputed islets and demanded an immediate repeal of the law.

    At an urgent press conference, South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Lee Kyu-hyung said South Korea would "take every necessary measure" to have the Japanese legislation scrapped, warning that "Japan is to blame for all consequences."

    Earlier in the day, the Assembly of Shimane Prefecture, in western Japan, passed a motion designating Feb. 22 as "Takeshima Day" to promote Japan's claim to "Takeshima," the rocky islands called "Dokdo" in Korean.

    "We strongly protest that Shimane Prefecture ... went ahead and passed the Dokdo Day bill despite repeated requests from our government for a halt," Lee said.

    Hours before the passing of the bill, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon protested the intended move and said sovereignty over Dokdo was not negotiable.

    "There cannot be a true friendship between the two countries" if the "unfair act" went unaddressed, he said.     

    ANNULMENT DEMANDED

    Lee, the spokesman, demanded the abolition of the law, which he called an attempt to damage South Korea's sovereignty over Dokdo.

    "The (South Korean) government declares that such a reckless act by Shimane Prefecture carries no effect in terms of international law and does not have any effect on the current status of Dokdo," Lee said.

    Dokdo, a group of 33 islets, is located some 89 km southeast of South Korea's Uleung Island in the East Sea (Sea of Japan) and 160km northwest of Japan's Oki Island. The largely uninhabited isletsare surrounded by rich fishing grounds.

    The islets have been disputed since the end of World War II butare in effective control of South Korea, which has a contingent of coast guards stationed there.

    At Wednesday's weekly press briefing, Foreign Minister Ban insisted that Dokdo could never be a subject of territorial dispute and negotiation.

    He said Shimane Prefecture's intended action would be "lamentable" and "cannot have any effect on our sovereignty over Dokdo."

    As a response, the South Korean government would announce a setof measures later in the day to "solidify" the country's sovereignty over the islets, Ban said.

    "Our government has no intention of hurting South Korea-Japan ties unnecessarily ... but there cannot be a true friendship between the two countries if we overlook or turn a blind eye to the unfair act by Shimane Prefecture," he said.

    Ban postponed indefinitely a visit to Japan last week in protest of Japan's renewed claim to the islands. The 60-year-old territorial dispute was more important than bilateral relations, he said,

    But on Wednesday, Ban made clear that Seoul would not allow thedispute to mar the two countries' cooperation over the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula. The two issues are separate, he stressed.

    South Korea and Japan are participants of the six-party talks aimed at peacefully resolving the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula. The other four countries are China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the United States and Russia.     

    JAPANESE MOVE SPARKS FUROR

    The ordinance approved by the Shimane Prefectural Assembly says the creation of the memorial day is aimed at enhancing Japan's territorial rights over the Takeshima islands and promoting awareness of the issue.

    As the assembly was discussing the bill, Japanese police stopped a Seoul city assemblyman from cutting his finger and writing a statement in blood outside the assembly hall, the Kyodo News Agency said.

    The South Korean man took out a knife and a piece of white paper from an attache case near the entrance of the assembly building, a local police spokesman said.

    Police seized his knife and took him away, the spokesman said, adding that the man was unhurt and was not arrested.

    Kyodo said the man was Seoul city assemblyman Choi Jae-Ik, who leads a group asserting South Korea's territorial rights to the Dokdo islands.

    Anti-Japanese demonstrations flared last month when Japan renewed its claim to the disputed islets. There have been daily protests outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul.

    On Monday, two South Koreans each lopped off a finger during a rally in front of the embassy in protest of Japanese claims to the islets.

    The dispute has soured relations between the two countries, both of which had been working in recent years to improve ties scarred by memories of Japan's harsh colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945.     

    BOTH COUNTRIES ADAMANT ABOUT CLAIMS

    South Korea insists that the Dokdo islets are historically and legally its territory, as the islets were listed as part of the territory of the Korean Dynasty of Silla in the 5th century.

    South Korea deployed a garrison of coast police on the islands in 1954, taking effective control of the islands.

    But Japan claims that the islets have been its territory since the 17th century. On Feb. 22, 1905, the Japanese Shimane Prefecture issued a notice that claimed the islets part of its land. The notice became the backbone of Japan's claim to Dokdo.

    South Korea argued that the notice was invalid because it was made when Korea's Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) was deprived of the right of diplomacy by Japan.

    Japan started the annexation of the Korean Peninsula in the early 20th century and completed it in 1910. After liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945, South Korean President Lee Seung-man issued a presidential decree on the dominion over the coastal sea and sovereignty over Dokdo in January 1952. Enditem