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US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman holds a press conference after a trilateral meeting with counterparts from Japan and South Korea on Wednesday. A joint press conference with all three nations was originally planned, but due to a disagreement between Korea and Japan, Sherman held an individual press conference. (pool photo)

Japan called off a joint press conference with the vice foreign ministers of South Korea and Japan over a visit to Dokdo by Korea’s national police chief. While Japan has long made a territorial claim to the islets, which are controlled by Korea, it’s extremely regrettable that it made the diplomatic faux pas of abruptly canceling a multilateral diplomatic event with an allied country.

Vice foreign ministers from Korea, the US and Japan were supposed to hold a joint press conference immediately after deliberations in Washington on Wednesday. But shortly before their meeting began, Japanese Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Takeo Mori announced that he couldn’t take part in the joint press conference because the head of Korea’s police had visited Dokdo. The trilateral talks were held as planned, but US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman was left hosting the press conference by herself.

“We could absolutely not accept what happened in relation to Takeshima, so we concluded it would be inappropriate to hold a joint press conference while we were making a protest to Korea,” the Japanese government said Thursday. Takeshima is the Japanese name for Dokdo, which is also called the Liancourt Rocks.

This isn’t the first time that Japan has claimed Dokdo, but it’s highly unusual for Japan to back out of a diplomatic event and in so doing embarrass the US, the host of the meeting, while the US was trying to showcase cooperation between the three countries.

There are worrisome indications that Japan is stepping up efforts to turn Dokdo into a disputed territory. That’s just one of many disputes that have built up between Japan and Korea, including historical issues such as the comfort women and forced labor, disagreements about formally ending the Korean War and other aspects of the Korean Peninsula peace process, and economic friction over Japan’s export controls.

Japan vociferously objected when then Korean President Lee Myung-bak visited Dokdo in August 2012, but there was little conflict when Kang Hee-rak, then commissioner general of the National Police Agency, did the same in 2009, when the two countries were on good terms. One interpretation of the latest move is that domestic politics are motivating newly elected Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to take a hard line on Korea.

Japan’s grousing over the Dokdo issue is dangerous because it undermines relations with Korea and the stability of Northeast Asia.

“We emphasize once again that Dokdo is obviously Korean territory, whether viewed historically, geographically, or in terms of international law,” the Blue House said.

Considering that the Japanese government has already ignored Korea’s overtures for dialogue, we hope it will refrain from aggravating division by dragging Dokdo onto the agenda. If that division extends beyond historical issues and irreversibly taints all areas, it will gravely damage the future of both countries.

Korea and Japan must not forget that now is the time for them to fervently seek a way to improve bilateral relations.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]