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The spades on the Olympic map are heightened when South Korea begins sea drilling near the disputed islands and cancels talks scheduled by leaders.
The South Korean military carried out an annual drill on Tuesday around some of the islands also claimed by Japan, calling off agreements between the leaders of the two countries and calling for a few days to discuss a map of the Olympics.
Seoul and Tokyo have been at odds with the sovereignty of South Korea’s “Dokdo” islets in the Sea of Japan, halfway between the two countries, also known as the East Sea.
Decades of territorial conflict erupted again as South Korea protested around a map on the Tokyo Olympics website when it marked the islands as Japanese territory.
Tokyo rejected Seoul’s request to remove the image of the islets from the Olympic map. South Korea has called on the International Olympic Committee to address the conflict and some South Korean politicians have called for a boycott of the Games.
Relations between the two Asian neighbors have been frozen due to the islands’ trade and compensation problems. the victims were forced to work in Japanese companies and military brothels During the 1910-45 Japanese colonial rule.
The South Korean Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that East Sea probes had naval, air and coast guard forces and were conducting minimal relations between troops due to coronavirus concerns.
South Korean news agency Yonhap reported earlier that Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has taken the drills and canceled scheduled talks with President Moon Jae-in at a summit of the Group of Seven (G7) in England this weekend.
While the two leaders exchanged greetings at the summit, they have not met face to face since Suga became prime minister last September, According to the Japanese news agency Kyodo.
A South Korean foreign ministry official told Yonhap that “it is unfortunate that the Japanese party has not responded to the exit plan agreed by the two sides at the labor level as a result of annual surveys to protect the East Sea territory.”
A South Korean Foreign Ministry official told Reuters news agency on Tuesday that the meeting could not be held without specifying the reason.
Asked if there was a reason for the conflict over the probes, the official said: “Exercises are carried out every year with the aim of defending our territory.”
South Korean excavations around the islets have been conducted twice a year since 1986, prompting frequent protests from Japan.
Japanese Cabinet Secretary-General Katsunobu Kato rejected Yonhap’s report on Monday, saying it was “unilateral” and that the talks had not taken place due to scheduling difficulties.
On Tuesday, Kato said Tokyo had held a protest over Seoul’s exercises, saying the islands are Japanese territory under history and international law.
“This type of drilling is unacceptable and very unfortunate,” he said at a press conference. “We have protested in front of the South Korean government and demanded that it be stopped.”
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