President calls for bipartisan support over Dokdo issue


President Lee Myung-bak lashed out at Japan for failing to sincerely acknowledge its wartime atrocities and apologize in a speech during his landmark visit to Dokdo on Friday, a senior Cheong Wa Dae official said Monday.

“(The issue of wartime sex slaves) will not be settled forever as they die with the passing of time,” Lee was quoted as saying by the official who declined to be named.

“It has yet to make a sincere apology for its aggression and we, thus, have yet to settle hard feelings. As Germany sincerely apologized after World War II, it has no such problem now.”

Lee’s visit to Korea’s easternmost islets came as Japan, which is also mired in territorial disputes with China and Russia, has increasingly voiced its claim to Dokdo through its diplomatic and defense documents and school textbooks.

The rekindled spat has sharply worsened bilateral ties. Tokyo said it would consider referring the case to the International Court of Justice, a move Seoul dismissed as part of Japan’s strategy to make the case an international dispute.

Some reports speculated that Lee might strongly urge Japan once again to apologize for its past wrongdoings during his Liberation Day speech on Aug. 15.

But a senior presidential official dismissed them, saying that a strongly-worded message for Tokyo or any special proposal to North Korea would not be included in the annual address, which has yet to be finalized.

“But, through the speech, President Lee may explain to the public the reason for his visit to Dokdo and make a basic mention of historical issues including the Japanese army’s sexual enslavement,” the official told media on condition of anonymity.

Tokyo has not sincerely responded to Seoul’s repeated requests to properly settle historical issues stemming from its 1910-45 colonization of the Korean Peninsula.

Lee has long stressed the urgency of the sexual slavery issue as more of the victims pass away each year. Currently, the number of the victims stands at 60. This year alone, four have passed away so far.

Japan has argued that all compensation issues were settled in a 1965 bilateral deal.

Lee’s unprecedented trip to Dokdo has raised questions over whether Seoul has made a shift in its policy toward Japan. Korea has so far taken a “low-key” policy concerning the territorial issue.

Presidential spokesperson Park Jeong-ha dismissed the speculation of a policy shift.

“President Lee’s visit to Dokdo is a matter separate from our foreign policy toward Japan,” he told reporters. “Japan is a country in close proximity to Korea and has a lot of economic exchanges with Korea. (Lee’s visit) is not a matter associated with the foreign policy.”

As Lee used what observers say is the strongest diplomatic card to assert Korea’s sovereignty over Dokdo, Seoul would not take further action to reinforce its effective control of the islets unless Tokyo makes provocative moves, officials said.

Its ostensible reason for suspending its plans to build a breakwater and a comprehensive maritime scientific research facility on Dokdo was to protect the ecology of the islets designated a national monument.

But the Seoul government apparently thinks the construction of the facilities could further escalate tensions with Japan and unnecessarily ensnare itself in a de facto territorial dispute, analysts said.

Some experts, however, argue that the government should continue its measures to strengthen its effective control of Dokdo.

“Seoul should exercise its sovereignty over the islets continuously, peacefully, sufficiently and actually, and this is a way to strengthen our claim should the case be brought before an international court,” said Lee Jang-hie, professor at the law school of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.

“In order to make the islets more accessible, we need to build a breakwater and make it inhabited by people so that Korea’s legislative, judiciary and administrative authority can extend to them.”

During his meeting with parliamentary leaders including National Assembly Speaker Kang Chang-hee, President Lee called for bipartisan support in handling the issue of Dokdo. Lee stressed that he had planned to visit the islets three years ago.

“Ahead of its parliamentary elections slated for September or October, politicians in Japan were bitterly fighting. But on the issue of Dokdo, it put up a unified front,” he said.

“Although Japan can solve it if it is determined to do so, Japan has been passive in settling this issue due to domestic political problems. So, I felt the need to display (our sovereignty) through action.”

Nearly 85 percent of the questioned supported Lee’s visit in a survey conducted by a local pollster a day after Lee visited the islets on Friday, government officials said.

By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)