Kim made the remarks at a parliamentary session hours before the Japanese government made the formal proposal to South Korea by sending a diplomatic document through the Japanese embassy in Seoul, escalating diplomatic tension between the two historical rivals.
"Our stance is that there should not exist any territorial disputes over Dokdo because Dokdo is our territory," Kim told lawmakers. "Going to the ICJ is not worth consideration.
"What Japan wants is to make Dokdo a disputed territory and referring the issue to the ICJ is met with such an intention," Kim said.
Kim also warned that South Korea will take "stern measures (against Japan), because Dokdo is a Korean territory historically, geographically and under international laws," if Japan continues to raise an "unjustified" issue over Dokdo.
Kim said the Japanese proposal is not feasible because it must secure South Korea's consent to have the issue heard at the ICJ. Two previous proposals by Japan in 1954 and 1962 were also instantly rejected.
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Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan speaks during a parliamentary session on Aug. 21. (Yonhap) |
A verbal proposal was immediately dismissed by South Korea last Friday, but Japan ratcheted up its move as Tokyo delivered a "note verbale," a diplomatic document unsigned but more formal than a verbal one, to South Korea later in the day.
Announcing the formal proposal in Tokyo, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura told reporters that Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda ordered his cabinet to review other measures beyond diplomatic actions against South Korea over Dokdo, in a sign that other bilateral ties would be affected.
In the diplomatic document, Japan repeated its territorial claim on Dokdo and asked South Korea to jointly let the ICJ resolve the issue, Seoul officials said. The Hague-based ICJ is the prime judicial body of the United Nations.
Seoul's foreign ministry spokesman Cho Tai-young expressed "strong regrets" over the announcement by Fujimura and called on Japan to swiftly withdraw the proposal.
"We strongly demanded Japan immediately stop making such groundless and unjustified territorial claims on Dokdo," Cho told reporters.
Cho said his ministry will soon send a similar diplomatic missive to Japan, in which it will firmly state that Dokdo is a Korean territory and no territorial dispute exists.
Relations have soured quickly after President Lee Myung-bak made an unprecedented visit to Dokdo on Aug. 10. Lee cited what he calls Japan's unrepentant attitude over its brutal colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula as a key reason for the visit.
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Seoul diplomats said they will make a cool-headed response to the reinforced Japanese move to lay claim to Dokdo as it does not want to be mired into a ploy by Tokyo to make Dokdo a disputed territory.
"Dokdo is our territory, so it is not a subject to a judicial settlement," a senior ministry official said earlier in the day.
Dokdo, which lies closer to South Korea in the body of water between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, has long been a thorn in bilateral relations. South Korea keeps a small police detachment on the islets, effectively controlling them.
Japan has long laid claims to Dokdo in school textbooks, government reports and other ways, stoking enmity in South Korea against the former colonial ruler.
South Koreans see those claims as amounting to denying Korea's rights because the country regained independence from the 1910-45 Japanese colonial rule and reclaimed sovereignty over its territory, which includes Dokdo and many other islands around the Korean Peninsula.
Related to the diplomatic row over the islets, the National Assembly's Unification, Foreign Affairs and Trade Committee passed a motion calling on Japan to desist from making further territorial claims.
The motion stressed that Tokyo's actions are a clear provocation against South Korea's sovereignty and called on Seoul to formulate consistent strategies to deal with such claims.
kdh@yna.co.kr
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