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Japan Sends Envoy to South Korea to Discuss Island Dispute
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=11E3F78:3919ACA Japan says that
while talks are going on, it will postpone plans to conduct a
scientific survey near the tiny islands, which South Korea controls,
but Tokyo also claims A senior Japanese envoy is meeting South Korean
officials in Seoul in an attempt to resolve a worsening dispute over
an island chain both countries claim. South Korea says it hopes to
avoid the use of force but says it is ready for "all scenarios" in its
determination to stop Japan from conducting a controversial ocean
survey.

Japan and South Korea engaged in hastily scheduled diplomacy Friday,
while at least 20 South Korean coast guard ships patrolled the seas
around the disputed island chain.







Shotaro Yachi, left, shakes hands with Yu Myung-hwan during meeting at
foreign ministry in Seoul, FridaySouth Korean Vice Foreign Minister Yu
Myung-Hwan met Friday evening with his Japanese counterpart, Shotaro
Yachi, who arrived in Seoul earlier in the day. Yu said Friday South
Korea wants to avoid a confrontation but cannot run away from the
problem.

Japan says that while talks are going on, it will postpone plans to
conduct a scientific survey near the tiny islands, which South Korea
controls, but Tokyo also claims.

In Tokyo, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso urged South Korean
leaders to consider a recent diplomatic offer it made to resolve the
issue.

Aso says the timing of the survey is linked to Seoul's decision to
propose Korean names for ocean features in the disputed region at a
global conference in June. If South Korea drops that proposal, he
says, there would be no reason for Japan to conduct the survey at this
time.

The dispute over the islands, which Koreans call Dokdo and Japan calls
Takeshima, is intensely emotional for South Koreans.

South Korea regained control of the unoccupied islands at the end of
World War II after 35 years of Japanese colonial rule on the Korean
peninsula.

South Korea says Japan has not distanced itself from its imperial
past, and even glorifies it.

Anger at Japan is unifying South Koreans across the political
spectrum. Park Geun-hye, chairwoman of South Korea's main conservative
opposition, says her party will support a hard-line stance by the
government.

Park says because this is a matter of sovereignty, there is no room
for South Korea to make concessions.

Adding to South Korea's anger was a visit by a group of Japanese
lawmakers Friday to Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine, which pays tribute to
convicted war criminals alongside other Japanese dead. The Japanese
lawmakers said the visit was not related to the current dispute.