Seoul (AsiaNews) – "Dokdo is our territory": these were the opening words of a speech given by the president of South Korea, Roh Moo-hyun, on 27 April, denouncing Japan's imperialist past and its current claim of sovereignty over two islets (0.39 square kilometers), called Dokdo by Koreans and Takeshima by the Japanese. Since the year of normalization between the two nations (1965), no other South Korean president has spoken so strongly against their neighbour.

The statement of Roh is a refrain that has been shouted and sung in anti-Japanese meetings and marches, and in schools, for two years. Roh added: "Apart from being our land, it has a specific historic significance", because it is a symbol of Japanese imperialistic aggression. He said: "South Korea will mobilise all its national and diplomatic resources to oppose Japan's unreasonable claims and to oblige it to rectify its wrongdoings."

The talk, broadcast without warning, came as a surprise to all in Korea, Japan, and abroad. Only three days earlier, Yu Myung-hwan, the South Korean deputy Foreign Affairs Minister, and Shotaro Yachi, his Japanese counterpart, had managed to reach agreement that seemed to diffuse a crisis born in mid-April. Then, the Japanese government informed the International Hidrographic Organization (IHO) that it intended to undertake underwater research to update maritime maps of a zone of the Sea of Japan. But the two islets are in those waters.

Korea and Japan both claim sovereignty of them. Since 1954, a Korean garrison has been stationed there. In 1965, during negotiations to normalize relations, the problem of their ownership was put off, and talks started in 1996 to establish respective maritime borders were interrupted in 2000.

By letting the IHO know the location of the underwater research it intended to carry out, Japan was implicitly claiming sovereignty over the contested islands. Korea reacted with huge street protests and the Foreign Affairs Minister, Ban Ki-moon, summoned the Japanese ambassador to ask him to get his government to immediately annul the research programme. Tokyo, claiming it was acting in compliance with international law, did not accept the demand and went ahead with its plan, docking two research ships, hence without arms, in Sakaiminato port in north-east Japan. Seoul responded by sending 18 coast guard ships, armed, to the area around Dokdo.

In reality, Japan's confrontational move was a reaction to a provocation by Korea. In June, an IHO assembly will be held in Germany. The Seoul government had already prepared a plan to ask the organization to rename the underwater area between the two rocky outcrops and Ullung island. The Japanese had already explored this area in the 70s and registered it under the name of Tsuhima.

On 22 April, diplomacy seemed to have got the better of gunfire. After 20 hours of talks, Tokyo called off its research plan; Seoul committed itself not to ask the IHO to change the name, for now. And the two agreed to resume talks in May to clearly determine the maritime borders of the contested area.

But Roh's speech on 27 April fuelled the flames of controversy again.

It seems there is no doubt, from a historical perspective, that Korea should enjoy sovereignty of the islands. Prof. Mark Seldon of Cornell University said: "Data from historical archives bear Korea out. It can claim possession from the time of the Silla Dynasty (18th century)." Japanese diplomacy seeks to overrule the case of history by presenting a document stating that the kingdom of Korea ceded the two islets to Japan in 1905. A Sybilline argument. It's true the peninsula was annexed in 1910 but in the early years of the 20th century, the Japanese imperialistic government had already stripped the kingdom of Korea of all powers in the foreign policy sector. "Dokdo is the first territory taken by Japan during its war of aggression against our peninsula," added Roh.