South Korean President Roh Moo-hyunon Tuesday said his country will strongly and firmly respond to any provocative actions taken by Japan in future.

Roh made the remarks in his special speech on South Korea-Japan relations which was being televised to the whole nation.

Ties between the two neighboring countries strained in recent weeks when the two had serious diplomatic disputes over a group of controversial islets controlled by South Korea.

The islets is called Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese. Both of the two nations claimed the islets are their territory.

The South Korean president also pledged to protect his country's sovereignty over Dokdo by taking "any necessary measures at any expense or sacrifice."

Roh also said Dokdo is a symbol of independence of Korean Peninsula from the colonial rule of Japan, accusing Japan's attempt to label the islets as its territory is aiming to justify its aggression of the peninsula.

"It is time to completely reconsider South Korea's countermeasures over Japan's repeated claims over Dokdo," said Roh.

He said, in future, South Korea will take issues of school textbooks, Japanese leader's visit to the Yasukuni Shine together with Dokdo as a whole.

"South Korea will mobilize all the national strength and diplomatic resources" to reach the goal which makes Japan set up right understanding on history.

Several kinds of high school history textbooks, which were authorized by Japan's education authorities in the past years, were found to include contents whitewashing Japan's wartime past.
 
Moreover, South Korean government and people were angered at Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to the Yasukuni Shrine which honors 2.5 million Japanese war deads, including the Class A criminals of the World War II.

"South Korea will not demand a new apology. What we want is Japan's actions. Japan should stop its beautifying its aggression history and stop its insulting South Korean people's proper pride," said Roh.

Roh then urged Japan to act in accordance with international values and standards.

The recent dispute between South Korea and Japan was triggered by Japan's plan to conduct maritime survey around the waters near Dokdo. South Korea and Japan compromised on last weekend over their disputes over the controversial islets.
 
On last Saturday, Japan agreed to withdraw its maritime survey plan in the disputed waters after a two-day negotiation. In return, South Korea promised to suspend plans that rename seafloor topography near the Dokdo islets, in June's International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) convention.

South Korea insists that the waters near Dokdo islets are part of its exclusive economic zone and Japan has no rights to conduct such a survey without Seoul's approval.

South Korea insists that the Dokdo islets, located some 89 kilometers southeast to South Korean Uleung Island and 160 kilometers northwest to Japanese Oki Island in the East Sea (Sea of Japan), have been listed as its territory in history literature since the fifth century.

Japan claims the islets has been its territory since 17 century, as written in literature.

In order to prove the islets' nationality, a group of South Korean guard police have been stationed on the otherwise uninhabited islets since 1954.

(Xinhu News Agency April 26, 2006)