"Tokto is our land!" "Is not!" "Is, too!"

In the never ending Tokto-Takeshima row...

Never willing to just let things cool off for a while, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Kimoon [Pan Kimun in McCune-Reischauer] said today that the Tokto issue "takes precedence over Korea-Japan relations." Yonhap describes this as South Korea being "prepared to risk its relations with Japan" over the Tokto issue.

Sovereignty is important, and this move is meant to get Japan to back off on its claims to the islets (and the surrounding territorial waters), but will this posturing be any more effective than such posturing in the past?

Again, I submit that Tokto, like Japan's territorial disputes with other countries, are part of the landscape and they aren't going to go away any time soon, especially not with the rhetoric and grandstanding coming from both the private and public sectors in both countries. What we need to realize is that other important issues (Hello? Regional security, North Korean nukes, a resurging China, and Yonsama!) should not be derailed over this.