South Korea said it is willing to risk relations with Japan to defend its territorial rights over a group of uninhabited islets, the foreign minister said Wednesday. "This is an issue related to our territory and sovereignty and therefore it can be said that the issue takes precedence over Korea-Japan relations - we will sternly deal with the issue," said Foreign Minister Ban Ai Moon in Seoul. South Korea said it will be "unyielding" in its defense of the Dokdo islands. The issue was re-ignited when the local government of Shimane Prefecture declared February 22 as "Takeshima Day", the Japanese name for the islets, fueling mass protests in South Korea. Japan's ambassador to Seoul, Toshiyuki Takano, stoked the outrage by bluntly repeating his government's position that the islets, which are halfway between both countries, are "historically and legally"Japanese territory. He did, however, stress that the question of sovereignty should not be allowed to impair bilateral relations. On Tuesday, South Korea's military mobilized four fighter planes to intercept a light air plane hired by a Japanese newspaper to photograph the disputed territory from flying over the island. Since 1954, South Korea has maintained a small police outpost on the islets as a symbol of its ownership.
