Local civic groups on Tuesday demanded the government restart a plan to build a tourist safety facility on the country’s easternmost islets of Dokdo, saying it would reinforce its sovereignty over the islets also claimed by Japan.
Last Tuesday, South Korea scrapped the 3 billion won (US$2.74 million) project to build a facility that would take care of the safety of tourists on Dokdo, citing a negative impact it could have on relations with Japan.
A coalition of seven groups including the Camouflaged Troops of Dokdo and the Young Korean Academy, however, said the benefits of the project far outweigh the costs.
“The project would strengthen South Korea’s ownership of Dokdo,” the groups told a press conference in front of the government complex in central Seoul. “Abandoning it is tantamount to forsaking our sovereignty over Dokdo.”
The groups urged Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se to take the blame for the project’s cancellation and resign.
Dokdo has been a recurring source of South Korea’s diplomatic tensions with Japan with the neighboring country often renewing territorial claims to the set of islets.
South Korea rejects Japan’s claim to Dokdo as the country regained its independence from Japanese colonial rule and reclaimed sovereignty over its territory, including Dokdo. (Yonhap)
