Japan Wednesday objected to absentee voting boxes it said were
set up on a set of disputed islets by officials from South Korea as
the neighboring country held local elections.
The islets, called Dokdo in South Korea and Takeshima in Japan,
are currently under South Korea's control but Japan also claims
them and objects to any moves aimed at solidifying South Korean
sovereignty over the territory.
The ballot boxes were "unacceptable by any measure, from Japan's
standpoint concerning the territorial rights," Japanese Foreign
Minister Taro Aso told a parliamentary committee.
It was not immediately known how many South Koreans, if any,
used the islets' ballot boxes to cast votes, a Foreign Ministry
official said on condition of anonymity, citing ministry
protocol.
The only inhabitants of the rocky outcroppings, in an area rich
in fish and minerals, are 30 South Korean police stationed there,
according to the government in Seoul.
After Tokyo learned that ballot boxes had been set up on the
islets, Japan protested about them through its embassy in Seoul on
May 23, the Foreign Ministry official said.
Japan and South Korea are scheduled to meet June 12-13 in Tokyo
to discuss how to handle their dispute over the islands.
Opposition wins landslide victories
No national positions were at stake in Wednesday's local
elections in South Korea, which included races for mayor in the
capital, Seoul, and the second-largest city Busan.
South Korea's main opposition party won 11 of 16 key regional
posts in the elections, according to exit polls, riding to
landslide victories on nationwide sympathy for its leader wounded
in a knife assault and widespread disenchantment with the
government.
The ruling Uri Party won just a single race among the mayoral
and gubernatorial posts up for grabs, according to exit polls by
KBS television. The small Millennium Democratic Party won two
races, and two campaigns were too close to call, KBS said.
Among the key positions won by the opposition Grand National
Party were mayors of Seoul, and Busan, along with the governor of
Gyeonggi province that surrounds Seoul, the exit polls showed. GNP
members had previously held those three jobs.
The Uri Party's sole victory so far according to the exit polls
was in North Jeolla province, a traditional stronghold of the
Millennium Democratic Party, which severed its ties with Uri in
2003.
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(China Daily June 1, 2006)
