S. Koreans stick it to Japan
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A South Korean protester shouts anti-Japan slogans as citizens line up to buy the new stamps.
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SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) -- South Koreans have shrugged off official Japanese complaints and queued up at dawn to buy out an entire issue of postage stamps depicting islands at the center of a long territorial dispute between the two Asian neighbors.
All 2.24 million stamps -- 560,000 strips of four stamps -- showing flora and fauna of the rocky outcrops Seoul calls Tokto and Japan refers to as Takeshima sold out in about two hours, postal workers said.
Earlier in Tokyo, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda told a news conference Japan would repeat a diplomatic protest it had made several times to Seoul to no avail.
"It is truly regrettable that the stamps will be issued despite our repeated requests not to do so," he said.
The islands, which lie between the Korean peninsula and Japan, are inhabited only by a garrison of South Korean soldiers stationed there to assert Seoul's control.
Japan has asked South Korea to reconsider the planned stamps since last year, but Seoul refused, saying it was its sovereign right to issue them.
"From Japan's perspective, they are judging Tokto Island as a disputed territory, but from our perspective and from the foreign ministry's view, we clearly claim that it is not disputed land," said South Korean Director General of Posts Jay Q. Park.
The two countries have constantly disputed the ownership of the islets since the end of World War Two. The struggle is felt more acutely in South Korea, which has bitter memories of Japan's often brutal colonial rule over the peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
Their first stamp squabble over the islands was in 1954, when South Korea issued three kinds of Tokto stamps and Japan responded by saying it would not accept mail bearing the stamps.
Asked about the controversy this week, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said the neighbors had nothing to gain by fueling the dispute. In any case, Roh added, Seoul already controlled the rocky outcrops.
"Is there a need to constantly emphasize that my wife is my wife?" he asked.
Copyright 2004
Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
