Prime Minister Chung Hong-won apologized Friday for the government’s controversial decision to scrap its plan to set up a safety management facility in Dokdo, the country’s easternmost islets also claimed by Japan.
The government came under fire following news reports earlier this week that it tried to cover up the latest decision not to go ahead with the safety center construction plan on the rocky islets.
Critics said the government may have decided to shelve the plan for fear that the addition of a South Korean government facility on the islets may provoke Japan. But the government refuted such claims insisting that the decision was made in consideration of landscape and other management issues.
“As the prime minister in charge of (the Dokdo center plan), I give my apology for what seems likes confusion stirred around the Dokdo travel support center,” the prime minister said in an parliamentary interpellation session.
When the government made the latest decision, it was judged that the government does not need to publicize the country’s ownership of Dokdo by implementing the plan because the islets clearly belong to the country, Chung said.
“(We judged that) Dokdo would be best to be kept clean (of a safety facility) in terms of environment, safety and landscape,” he also noted.
“Dokdo is historically, geographically and legally South Korean territory for sure and we do not even need to mention the ownership. Therefore (officials) decided to preserve Dokdo in consideration of landscape and safety,” Chung said, referring to a ministers’ meeting he presided last weekend to make the decision.
The scrapping of the Dokdo facility plan has drawn wild public criticism this week, with Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga hailing the decision as a feat of Japan’s diplomacy.
Japan has continuously renewed its territorial claim to the set of islets, triggering diplomatic tensions with Seoul.
South Korea rejects Japan’s claim to Dokdo as nonsense because the country regained its independence from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule and reclaimed sovereignty over its territories, including Dokdo and many other islands around the Korean Peninsula. (Yonhap)
