South Korea will again demand an explanation from Japan about its controversial denial of entry for a South Korean singer, a senior Seoul official said Wednesday.
Famous South Korean singer Lee Seung-chul was sent home Sunday after being detained at Japan’s Haneda Airport for four hours upon his arrival.
Lee’s management agency said the Japanese side did not clearly disclose the reason for denying him entry, but local media speculated it might have been in retaliation for the singer’s concert held on South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo, also claimed by Japan, in August.
The 48-year-old singer, who boasts a large fandom here, held the performance together with a group of North Korean defectors there one day before the Aug. 15 anniversary of Korean liberation from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule.
Speaking at a parliamentary session, Vice Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yong said the South Korean Embassy in Tokyo has demanded an explanation for the entry denial.
“Today the foreign ministry in Seoul will summon a (Japanese) official in charge to demand (again) an explanation about the issue,” he noted.
Meanwhile, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, also spokesman for the Japanese government, dismissed Wednesday the suspected link between the entry denial for Lee and his Dokdo performance.
The denial of Lee’s entry is not related to his performance on Dokdo because the decision was made in accordance with Japan’s immigration and refugee acceptance law, the Japanese official said, adding, “I think the (Japanese) justice ministry dealt with (it) properly on Nov. 9 in accordance with the law.”
But he did not disclose the exact reason why Lee was denied entry under the immigration law, citing privacy matters.
Lee’s agency has said Japanese authorities reminded him of his record of smoking marijuana when he was being held at the airport.
But that incident, which happened about 20 years ago, had not mattered during his many trips to Japan in the past, his agency noted.
The entry denial issue is only the latest in the recent series of diplomatic feuds over the set of islets.
The two nations recently got into a diplomatic bickering after Japan hailed Seoul’s recent decision to scrap a tourist safety center construction plan on Dokdo as its diplomatic feat.
The islets, sitting closer to South Korea in the waters between the neighbors, have been a constant source of diplomatic tensions, with Japan often renewing territorial claims to Dokdo. (Yonhap)
