Chronologies
Japan - Korea
Chronology from Jan 2005 to Mar 2005
: Shimane Prefectural Assembly passes bill designating Feb. 22 as Takeshima Day.
: Choson Ilbo reports that Tokyo’s claim that Yokota’s remains were not authentic were premature.
: Light civilian Japanese aircraft attempts to fly over the Tokdo/Takeshima islets without South Korean permission. South Korean jet fighters are sent to intercept the plane.
: Ban on foreign vessels without proper insurance from Japanese ports goes into effect. It is considered a de facto sanction against the DPRK as about only 2.5 percent of its vessels are insured.
: President Roh demands the Japanese government offer apologies and adequate compensation to victims of Japanese brutality during the colonial period on the Korean Peninsula.
: Japan’s Ambassador to South Korea Takano Toshiyuki states to foreign correspondents in Seoul that Takashima (Tokdo) is part of Japanese territory historically and under international law.
: Japan’s Foreign Ministry announces plans to set up a provisional consulate in the DPRK to accommodate hundreds of Japanese supporters expected to attend the World Cup qualifier June 8.
: DPRK declares itself a “de facto” nuclear power with a statement it has “manufactured nuclear weapons.”
: LDP drafts human rights legislation aimed at protecting the rights of North Korean defectors to pressure North Korea to resolve the abduction issue.
: Publication of a middle school history textbook to be written by a committee of scholars, teachers, and experts from China, Japan, and South Korea is announced. The project is tentatively titled, Modern History of East Asia.
: South Korea-Japan Friendship Year is officially kicked off at National Yoyogi Stadium in Japan to mark the 40th anniversary of normalization between the two nations. The opening ceremony for South Korea will be held Jan. 27.
: AP reports private Japanese fund, from which donations were used to compensate “comfort women” or women and girls pressed into wartime prostitution for Japanese soliders during WWII, will be dissolved March 31, 2007.
: Joongang Ilbo reports free-trade talks between Japan and South Korea are bogged down over agriculture quotas on seaweed and concerns of a South Korean trade deficit with Japan.
: Chosun Ilbo reports poll taken by Japan’s Fuji TV and South Korea’s Munhwa Broadcasting Station shows that 56.1 percent of Japanese see Koreans as allies, while only 29.2 percent of South Koreans view Japanese as allies.
: PM Koizumi says no deadline will be set for normalizing relations with North Korea. Furthering the relations between the two nations will be contingent upon North Korean fulfilling the Pyongyang Declaration.