LEAD: Japan protests S. Korean law related to disputed islets

Japan Policy & Politics, May 2, 2005

TOKYO, April 27 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH JAPAN CONVEYING PROTEST TO S. KOREA)

Japan protested Wednesday against South Korea's enactment of a law Tuesday aimed at strengthening its grip on some islets in the Sea of Japan that Japan also claims.

Kenichiro Sasae, who heads the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, summoned Chu Gyu Ho, minister at the South Korean Embassy in Tokyo, and made the protest, Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hatsuhisa Takashima said.

During a news conference, the ministry's press secretary said it was ''regrettable'' that the act on the sustainable use of the islets cleared the South Korean parliament.

South Korea enacted the law after reacting sharply to an ordinance the Shimane Prefectural Assembly enacted last month designating a commemorative day for the South Korean-administered islets called Tokto in South Korea and Takeshima in Japan.

Japan claims South Korea is illegally occupying the islets and so the law the South Korean parliament enacted was ''unacceptable,'' Takashima said.

A senior ministry official ruled out Japan taking the stance that it was reasonable for South Korea to have such a law following the move in Shimane, saying, ''A local ordinance and a state law are different'' in terms of the level of magnitude.