Job Opportunity: Lighthouse Keeper

[kurohinge1]

For those of you wondering why anyone would want to survey an island:

TOKYO, May 1 (Xinhua) -- Japan and South Korea reached a last-minute compromise last month to resolve a standoff regarding a set of disputed islets. A story published by the Kyodo News on Sunday revealed what happened behind the closely-averted clash between the two countries.

According to the story, in late November 2005, officials of the Japan Coast Guard read a website version of a major South Korean newspaper, which said that the South Korean government planned to name the seabed features around the set of disputed islets, known as Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea.

The Japan Coast Guard immediately notified the Foreign Ministry that Seoul intended to submit Korean names for the seabed features to an international oceanographic meeting in June ...

After Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe heard the message, the Japanese Cabinet accepted the suggestion that Japan conduct its own maritime survey in March as an reaction to Seoul's move ...

According to Kyodo, Japan has offered a compromise plan to South Korean before sending the survey vessel, saying that if Seoul cancels its naming proposal, Japan would stop its survey.

... After more than 16 hours of negotiation in Seoul, Japan and South Korea reached the agreement, which says that South Korea will not propose Korean names for the seafloor topography around the disputed islets at the international ocean mapping conference to be held in Germany in June, while Japan cancels the maritime survey for the time being ... more

[homesweethome]

And then Roh in a speech on the 28th denounced everything that was previously 'agreed to' and this:
Surprise Visit to Dokdoh by Korean Ishihara

[kurohinge1]

[SIZE="4"]Koreans, Bee Angry[/SIZE]

It's getting serious now - the Koreans have got the bees out.

South Korean bee farmer Ahn Sang-kyu swarms himself with 180,000 bees in protest against Japan's sovereignty claim over a desolate island known as Tokto in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese. Photo: Reuters

And thank you, Ahn Sang-kyu. ]http://www.graphicsanonymous.net/forums/images/smilies/bee.gif[/IMG]

[kurohinge1]

Japanese, Korean officials agree to negotiate maritime border at Doha talks

Korean and Japanese foreign ministers met on the sidelines of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue on Tuesday and agreed to hold negations to redraw the maritime border around a string of islets claimed by the two countries.

. . . South Korea's Yonhap news agency added that high-level discussions on redrawing the boundary would be held in Tokyo June 12-13.

The discussion held by Ban and Aso was the highest level encounter between the two countries since a long-running dispute over the islets -- called Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese -- flared last month when Japan said it would conduct a maritime survey in nearby waters.

The dispute has prevented South Korea and Japan from demarcating their exclusive economic zones. Under international law, such zones give a country rights over the exploration and use of marine resources within 200 nautical miles (230 miles, 370 kilometers) from its shores.

The islets are under South Korean control but the surrounding waters lie halfway between the two countries. The area, claimed by both nations, is a rich fishing ground and is also believed to have methane hydrate deposits, a potential source of natural gas . . . more

[SIZE="3"]With the islands in the middle, the Japanese zones in red and the Korean zones in white, I understand that the Japanese proposal for sharing the area looks something like this:[/SIZE]

[kurohinge1]

And if it's not Japan v Korea fighting over the disputed island Dokdo / Takeshima
or Japanese crab poachers being shot by the Russians around the disputed Kuril Islands / Chishima ,
it's a Taiwanese dinghy 'threatening' the original disputed island in this thread - Diaoyu / Senkaku:

[SIZE="4"]Japan chases Taiwanese ship off disputed islands[/SIZE]

Japan's Coast Guard on Thursday chased away a group of Taiwanese nationalists as they tried to sail to Japanese-held islands also claimed by Taiwan, officials said.

The group was filmed before they left northern Taiwan's Keelong harbour, shouting at Taiwanese coast guard officials.

"I am not afraid to die, I am afraid of nothing," one of the group said before sailing.

The Japanese coast guard warned the ship through loud speakers and wireless communication as it entered a 12-nautical mile zone set just outside Japanese territorial waters off the islets - known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in Taiwan - officials said.

The Taiwanese protesters reportedly threw stones towards the Japanese patrol boats to protest, but turned around and sailed away from the waters about an hour later. Japanese coast guard officials were still patrolling the area.

. . . Kyodo News agency quoted group member Wang Xilin as saying he also hoped to protest the repeated capture of Taiwanese fishing boats in the area by Japanese authorities.

The island chain is surrounded by rich fishing grounds and is regularly visited by nationalists from both sides, as well as China, which also claims the islands . . .more

[Buraku]

And if it's not Japan v Korea fighting over the disputed island Dokdo / Takeshima
or Japanese crab poachers being shot by the Russians around the disputed Kuril Islands / Chishima ,
it's a Taiwanese dinghy 'threatening' the original disputed island in this thread - Diaoyu / Senkaku:

[SIZE="4"]Japan chases Taiwanese ship off disputed islands[/SIZE]

Japanese media said the boat was carrying members of citizens' groups from Taiwan who wanted to press their nation's claim to the islands as well as protest Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit on Tuesday to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine.

Kyodo news agency said the Japanese government had set up an office at its crisis management centre to handle the situation.

The islands are near a gas field disputed between Japan and China, one of several issues that have dragged ties between the Asian neighbours to their lowest ebb in decades.

.



Koizumi paid his respects at Yasukuni, where Japanese World War Two leaders convicted as war criminals are honoured along with 2.5 million war dead, on Aug. 15, the emotive anniversary of Japan's surrender in the war.

On Wednesday, a Japanese fisherman died in disputed waters off Japan's northern island of Hokkaido after a Russian patrol boat fired on a fishing boat

[kurohinge1]

[Mulboyne]

And also:

IHT: SKorea summons Japanese ambassador over islets dispute

South Korea lodged a protest Monday with Japan over a news report that said Tokyo planned to describe disputed islets between the two countries as belonging to Japan in school textbooks. Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan summoned Japanese Ambassador Toshinori Shigeie after Japan's largest newspaper, Yomiuri, reported Sunday that education authorities plan to refer to the islets as part of Japan's territory in middle school textbooks to be used from 2012...South Korea was still waiting for Japan's official response to the Yomiuri report, ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young said. He added that the summoning of the ambassador was aimed at conveying Seoul's position that Japan should not undermine South Korean sovereignty over the islets. The Japanese ambassador, in response, said Tokyo has not worked out the guidelines for such a textbook as reported in Yomiuri, Moon said.

[Taro Toporific]

[floatl][/floatl]

REUTERS/May 25, 20008....anti-Japan rally in Seoul May 25, 2008, denouncing Japan's plan to describe the volcanic islets, known as Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese, as part of its territory. The red banner reads, "[SIZE="4"]The Japanese government!
Stop the Dokdo depredation plan[/SIZE]".

[SIZE="4"]Koreans, Bee Angry[/SIZE]
It's getting serious now - the Koreans have got the bees out.

]