Roh took combative islet stance

SEOUL — The late South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun in 2006 ordered maritime police to ram Japanese vessels if they approached a pair of South Korea-controlled islets to assert Japan's claims of sovereignty over them, according to a former aide.

Kim Byung Joon, who was then chief of the presidential office's policy planning bureau, wrote in an online article posted Aug. 12 on a website commemorating Roh that the president "ordered the Japanese research vessels be pushed and broken if they come to Dokdo."

"Under the order, the coast guard had made full preparations," he said.

South Korea and Japan came close to confrontation in April 2006 after Japan announced it would conduct ocean research in waters near the islets, known as Dokto to Koreans and as Takeshima to Japanese, in response to South Korea's decision to seek to register Korean names for seabed features in the area with the International Hydrographic Organization.

The dispute was ultimately settled through talks between vice foreign ministers of the two countries. Kim said Japan called off the ocean research plan and South Korea postponed registering Korean names for the seabed features with the IHO.

Japan's claims to the islets have sparked fierce protests in South Korea.

Earlier this month, the South Korean government barred three Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers from entering the country after they declared their trip was intended to visit a South Korean island near the disputed islets.

Roh, who served as president between 2003 and 2008, committed suicide in 2009 amid a widening bribery scandal involving his aides and family members.

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