Korea Warns Japan Over 'Useless' Dokdo Bill Greater Issues Than Dokdo Are at Stake Answer Japanese Provocations from Moral Strength Seoul Announces New Hardline Japan Doctrine Japan's 'Neocons' Feel No Debt to Korea Seoul Continues War of Words With Japan Masan City Cocks Snook at Shimane Prefecture What Will Japan Reflect on, and How?

The tension is being ratcheted up through provocations by Japanese rightwing groups, followed by a reaction from President Roh which is then ignored by Koizumi, driving the Korean president yet more furious. When the Japanese ambassador to Korea rashly said the Dokdo islets were Japanese territory, Roh cranked up criticism of Japan in his March 1 Independence Movement address, and Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon cancelled a visit to Japan on orders of the president.

Now the president is preparing a new doctrine completely redefining the Korea-Japan relationship.

But the Japanese prime minister has remained consistent in his strategy of ignoring Roh. About the president’s March 1 address, Koizumi merely indicated the remarks had been for domestic consumption. Cheong Wa Dae officials said Roh did not respond to Koizumi’s remarks, but officials at Cheong Wa Dae and the Foreign Ministry say Koizumi’s response was diplomatically discourteous from one national leader to another.

Koizumi has since made statements of principle along the lines of tackling the issues based on Korean-Japanese friendship. But the relationship between the Korean president and Japanese prime minister has deteriorated to a point unimaginable just a couple of months ago when the two were strolling together in Korea’s Jeju Island and Japan’s Kagoshima.

The Korean government believes that the cluster of events - statements about the Dokdo islets by Japanese political figures, Shimane Prefecture’s passing of a “Takeshima Day” bill and the textbook distortions - are related to Japanese political strategy. It now believes it can no longer sit by and watch.

Core Cheong Wa Dae officials said Wednesday the Japanese government and political leaders were taking too lax a view of the current situation. This is the background to the Korean government’s continued sharpening of its rhetoric. It now feels as if the time of letting bygones be bygones and moving into the future, policy directions set by President Roh himself not so long ago, has passed.

Asked if it might become impossible to conduct two-way summits should the situation get worse, a Cheong Wa Dae official said it was too early to tell.

(englishnews@chosun.com )