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Monday September 4, 5:52 PMSouth Korea, Japan hold talks over disputed islandsSEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea and Japan held talks on Monday to take the steam out of a simmering dispute over desolate islands claimed by both countries.Tensions have flared in the past year and a half over the islands, called Tokto in South Korea and Takeshima in Japan, which lie about the same distance from the two Asian neighbours. Plans by Japan to conduct a maritime survey near the islands in April led South Korea to dispatch about 20 coastguard vessels to head off the survey ship. The two-day talks in Seoul will address claims for economic exclusion zones around the islands, sitting among rich fishing grounds and above what South Korea says could be billions of dollars' worth of gas hydrate deposits, officials said. The negotiations are part of a new programme to defuse the row, which dates back to the 1950s, although South Korea says the islands have been recorded as part of Korean territory since 512. The dispute has long been fanned by South Korean rancour over Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula. South Korea says the islands were among the first territory taken by Japan when it started to colonise the peninsula. Japan said it had effective control of the islands well before it annexed Korea. South Korea controls the islands and maintains a police presence there. A round of talks on the islands in June ended without a breakthrough. The talks come as South Korea and Japan prepare for a new Japanese leader, with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi stepping down later this month. Koizumi has infuriated South Korea and other countries in the region with his visits to a Tokyo war shrine critics say glorifies Japan's 20th-century military aggression in Asia. Seoul suspended summit meetings because of Koizumi's visits to the Yasukuni Shrine and has called on Japan's next prime minister not to visit there. Regular high-level contact has been largely limited to meetings of vice foreign ministers, who will hold talks in Seoul on Thursday. |
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