Japan's move on disputed isles angers S.Korea

TOKYO, Wednesday (Reuters) A local Japanese assembly declared a special day named for islands disputed with South Korea on Wednesday to stress Japan's claim over them, prompting an angry response from Seoul and calls from Tokyo for calm.

The plan had already sparked strong protests from South Korea when it was submitted last month, straining a bilateral relationship that many analysts say had been at its best since the countries established diplomatic ties 40 years ago.

Japanese right-wingers clad in paramilitary gear gathered to applaud as the prefectural assembly of Shimane in western Japan adopted the local law designating Feb. 22 as "Takeshima Day", a reference to Japan's name for the rocky islets. Visiting South Korean politicians protested.

The ordinance is symbolic, calling on people in the prefecture to make efforts to establish territorial rights on the islands and also raise awareness of the issue. A member of the Seoul city assembly was restrained by Japanese police in front of the Shimane assembly building as he took out a knife and tried to cut his finger with the intention of writing a protest in blood, police said.

A number of Japanese right-wingers blared out Japanese claims near the assembly building using loudspeaker trucks, the police official said. In Seoul, about 20 Korean protesters gathered outside the Japanese embassy, shouting anti-Japanese slogans and setting fire to pictures of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

Following the measure's adoption, the South Korean foreign ministry said it would summon a diplomat from the Japanese embassy in Seoul to lodge a protest, and the South Korean province of North Kyungsang said it would sever sister city relations with Shimane.

"I want to make clear that Shimane Prefecture's deplorable act has absolutely no impact on the fact that Tokto is our own sovereign territory," South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said shortly before the vote. Ban postponed a visit to Japan last week saying the 60-year-old territorial dispute was more important than Japan-Korea relations, and there have been daily protests outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul.

On Monday, two South Koreans each lopped off a finger during a rally in front of the embassy in protest against Japanese claims over the islets, known as Tokto in South Korea. Wary of damage to bilateral ties and any fallout on multilateral efforts to deal with North Korea's nuclear weapons programme, Tokyo has been calling for calm and trying to contain the furore.

"We need to deal with this calmly based on the friendship between Japan and South Korea," Koizumi said following the vote in Shimane, a largely rural prefecture that has long been a bastion for the ruling conservative Liberal Democratic Party.