Relations between Japan and South Korea neared breaking point yesterday over renewed claims by Tokyo to sovereignty over a cluster of uninhabited islands in the Sea of Japan. Faced with continued violent protests in Seoul - during which two women cut off their fingers - Japan recalled its ambassador to South Korea, Toshiyuki Takano. Mr Takano angered his hosts recently by claiming that the volcanic islands, midway between the two countries, were "historically and legally" part of Japan. "I heard that severe anti-Japanese sentiment is increasing," a Japanese government spokesman, Hiroyuki Hosoda, told reporters after an emergency meeting in Tokyo with Mr Takano. The dispute over the Takeshima islands - known as the Dokto in South Korea - intensified after assembly members in Shimane prefecture in Japan drafted an ordinance that would set aside every February 22 to mark Japan's sovereignty. With the assembly expected to pass the draft ordinance tomorrow, tensions are running high in Seoul. Two people at a protest outside the Japanese embassy were taken to hospital after each chopping off a finger.
The South Korean foreign affairs minister, Ban Ki-moon, cancelled a trip to Japan, and North Kyongsang province suspended cultural exchange programmes with Shimane prefecture. The spat comes as the two countries celebrate 40 years of bilateral ties, amid some signs of a cultural detente. The islands are uninhabited apart from a small detachment of South Korean police. Though they are of no strategic significance, the islands stand in the middle of rich fishing grounds. Disagreements over the islands, and renewed calls for Japan to apologise for its wartime conduct, threaten to frustrate the countries' attempts to work together in talks on North Korea's suspected nuclear weapons programme. "Japan must make the truth of the past known and offer sincere apologies, and, if necessary, pay compensation," the South Korean president, Roh Moo-hyun, said in a speech this month. "Only then can we be reconciled."
"The sun in the East shall rise again".